The Sequoia Redwood — a tree found in Northern California that is both a natural phenomena and a tourist trap. Sometimes growing over 100 feet, tourists gaze with open mouths as they prepare to drive through them.

However, there is no need to plan a trip to California to see this majestic tree — Ames has its own. And although you can’t drive through it, it’s smooth enough to slide a beer down.

Located about five blocks off campus, Thumbs bar is almost easily missed.

Tucked between the Rose Tree Fiber Shop and an apartment building, the outside is a mere reflection of the bar itself.

When first walking into Thumbs, there are two things that are usually noticed first — the small and simple atmosphere and the redwood bar.

“The Sequoia Redwood is usually what people comment on first,” Thumbs bartender Bill Miller said. “It looks really nice when it is all polished up. You can see the fine grains of the wood and your reflection.

“It also has a small and cozy atmosphere,” Miller continued. “It has a unique space. People can sit in the booths along the wall and be discrete or private, or they can sit at the bar in more of a public space. It’s good for conversation and that’s what most people come here for.”

However, Thumbs hasn’t always been a cozy, quaint, off-campus English style bar.

Until spring of 1990, Thumbs Up was a two-level band bar located in the same building that Subway now occupies and was almost the size of Peoples Bar and Grill.

“The bar moved because the person who owned the building [from Subway to Copyworks] didn’t want any alcohol served on the property,” Miller said. “This [the current] building had been vacant since the early ’80s, so the old owners bought it and fixed it up.

“Economically, it wasn’t too damaging,” he added. “The bar had a strong clientele that followed them. It was the same packed crowd.”

After the bar was reestablished, the owners decided it was time to sell the bar to Matt Triplett and a silent owner.

The past three years of new ownership has brought a subtle change to Thumbs. One major change underway will be the addition of a beer garden in the alley to the east of the building.

“Matt’s goal is to make Thumbs more of a neighborhood bar,” Miller said. “More of the kind of bar you would find in Chicago or England.”

Triplett seems to be slowly achieving his goal in creating a smaller, cozier bar.

“[Thumbs] has a great personal environment,” Dan Friend, a senior in electrical engineering, said. “It’s different from the frat boy environment. Just don’t play the pin ball machine. It sucks.”

Chris Mende, a senior in management information systems, agreed with Friend. “I like it because it is off mainstreet and it’s intimate, cozy and relaxing,” Mende said.

Besides the cozy atmosphere, the clientele enjoy the bar’s combination of daily and nightly specials.

Open seven days a week, the daily specials are $0.75 draws, $1.25 pints, $1.50 wells and $3.75 pitchers from 2 until 7 p.m.

Nightly specials begin at 8 p.m. and include $3.75 pitchers on Sundays, $2.25 bloody marys on Mondays, daily specials all night on Tuesdays, $3.75 pitchers on Wednesdays, $0.75 gin and tonics on Thursdays, $2.50 margaritas on Fridays and $1.50 vodka and fruit juice on Saturdays.

“I like the idea of having different specials,” Mende said. “It brings different people in on the different nights. It’s mostly a liquor bar though and it would be nice if they had more than two kinds of beer.”

The nightly specials have also formed habits for some Thumbs clientele.

“I go in almost every Thursday night for gin and tonics,” Mary Carlson, a senior in journalism and mass communication, said. “They are cheap drinks that are good.

“Although, the people there don’t know if they’re vagrants or if they work there,” Carlson laughed. “There is one guy who is there a lot who wonders around, and sometimes he serves drinks and sometimes he drinks them.”

Thursday nights are beginning to include another feature — Gin and Jazz, two musicians who come in and play throughout the night.

“It’s had a good response so far, and I think more people will get into it,” Miller said.

But not everyone whole-heartedly agrees with Miller.

“The band isn’t bad, they’re just doing improv stuff that I was doing in high school,” Dillon Kraft, junior in political science who occasionally goes to Thumbs, said. “It sounds a bit like elevator music but, then again, the place is about the size of an elevator.

“The bar does have a good atmosphere though,” Kraft added. “I like to go there and hang out with friends and catch up on everything.”

Thumbs bar is located at 2816 West Street and is open 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily.