If your definition of bar food consists of greasy burgers, frozen pizzas and a deep fryer dishing up battered cheese curds, well, you won't have much problem finding dinner in Milwaukee.

But if you're looking for something different, perhaps even healthy, to go with your High Life, several area bars offer options that range from vegan to eclectic to gourmet.

Still, with new options springing up all over, it's the old-standbys that sometimes actually sell the best. But there's an evolution of bar food taking place in Brew City; that is, bar owners who find that customers want better-than-average fare when they're tying one on.

Take Scott Johnson's Palomino, 2491 S. Superior St., in Bay View. The popular corner bar serves up greasy fare like chicken fried steak and deep-fried pickles that'll coat your stomach during a long night on the town. But it also offers vegan riblets, hushpuppies and po' boy sandwiches -- not the kind of food you imagine gobbling down while watching a Packers game.

"We tried to do something a little bit new, but not too new," says Johnson. "There's this pull between wanting to be super creative, crazy, totally out there, and selling food items that will actually sell."

Then there's The Wicked Hop, 345 N. Broadway, which must compete with an ever-increasingly sophisticated Dowtown bar scene. Situated on the north end of the Historic Third Ward, owner Myles O'Neil says he understands the need to differentiate himself from the competition by offering a diverse menu, including wraps, salads and fire-grilled Angus beef burgers.

"We're not a corner bar in the traditional sense. Being in the Third Ward, it changes the dimensions a bit about what do with the menu," says O'Neil. "We gravitated toward something that is relatively simple, but provocative, as well."

Or you could go an entirely different route with 4th Base, a gourmet (yes, gourmet) sports bar at 5117 W. National Ave. in West Milwaukee. There, you won't even find a menu. You simply request anything you can imagine, made to order. That includes steak or lobster, a gigantic farmer's omelet or a simple burger and fries before heading to nearby Miller Park.

"There's a menu, it's just not printed," says owner Daryl Scholl. "Whatever we've got, we'll make for you. It just sort of evolved. We just started adding different items, and we thought if we had to print a menu, it would be endless, because it would be as long as your imagination."

4th Base, which Scholl opened in 1980, has perhaps unfairly earned a reputation by some as being outrageously expensive. But that may be because, without a menu, people forget to ask what an item costs. That, and they're usually enjoying several well-made cocktails with their meal -- which naturally drives up the cost of the bill.

A top-quality 8-oz. filet of beef, for example, costs $22. "Everything has a set price," says Scholl. "But to alleviate that sort of question coming up at all, I should probably come out with a menu, to be honest with you."

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