With Ida B’s Table, co-owner/chef Dave Thomas brings modern-day soul food to Charm City. In fact, this downtown spot—named for journalist and suffragist Ida Bell Wells-Barnett—has an admirable purity of purpose that includes live music on the weekends, thought-provoking art by local artists on the walls, and a boffo bar program. Thomas’ grandmother Anna was the daughter of a slave and the person who most influenced his cooking from her small, North Carolinian kitchen. Her memory is kept very much alive in the form of boldly seasoned dishes such as curried catfish, slow-braised short ribs, and Old Bay fried chicken and biscuits.