Having grown up in Ames, the first bar and still one of the best was actually downtown, The Whiskey River! First bar drinking in, Cafe Beaudelaire. The equivilent of Baly or that mexican joint on Welch now. First legal bar was People's for my 21st, Tuesday Twofers. But the best place ever is, was, and always will be The Lost&Found Lounge. Odd I remember this much now, didn't remember that much then.