Hello, I'm a college student and I'm going to be turning 21 in a few months. Now obviously, being a college student, I do have some experience with alcohol, but most of it is just drinking a bunch of shots of vodka before running out to party, which really isn't that great. Since I'll be turning 21 and I really want to gain a lot more knowledge about stuff like mixers and cocktails and all that, I was wondering if anyone knew any bars around the Medical Center or easily uber-able/METRO-able places downtown (I live right off the Memorial Hermann/Zoo stop on the Red Line). It's a little embarrasing to ask other students about alcohol (I literally just found out what a Jack and Coke was a few days ago), so I'm hoping to just spend some time talking to bartenders here and there so that I have some idea what's even going on.

Since I grew up in Cypress, I don't actually know much about downtown Houston despite having lived here for about 1.5 years. I'm hoping to get to know downtown a lot more so that I can have fun in my mid-20s and such when friends/colleagues probably want to do that sort of stuff. Right now I have no friends who are interested in exploring nightlife like comedy clubs/bars/etc. in downtown Houston, so I'm just hoping to go out into Houston myself learn about this stuff on my own I guess.

Right now I have a list of cool places I'm hoping to check out like Avant Garden, The Secret Room, etc. and I'm just hoping to add more to that list so that I can start hitting them up once I'm 21.