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• Whammy Bar

Pizza with pepperoni, banana peppers, black olives and onions accompanied by salads with ranch and blue cheese dressing. (Steve Sanchez/The Star)

The Whammy Bar on East 82nd Street keeps it simple. (Steve Sanchez / The Star)

The updated Whammy Bar is open longer than before, and its menu selections have been simplified

The Music Mill, a Northeastside staple for live music, has always provided an adjacent area for dining and drinking. The former full-scale restaurant recently underwent a downsizing of sorts -- not in square footage, but in attitude.

Gone are the cushy booths and the multi-page menu. Instead, the new Whammy Bar keeps it simple -- concrete floors, no-frills seating and a skinny two-sided bar menu focused on finger foods.

What has expanded: the hours. The bar is open until 3 a.m. six days a week, although food service, like Cinderella, disappears at midnight. And part of the space formerly occupied by those cushy booths has been cleared to accommodate live music on a smaller scale than the main stage next door.

Like most late-night venues, the Whammy Bar doesn't get going until at least 9.p.m., a fact my husband and I discovered when we dropped in for a mid-evening bite. We were the only two diners throughout our stay.

Choosing our meal was easy: The daily special was half-priced pizza, which we topped with pepperoni, black olives, onions and banana peppers. We gave the other options (mini-burgers, beer-battered shrimp, wings, nachos, cheese fries, burgers and chicken sandwiches) the once-over, but the 14-inch pie ($6, plus 75 cents per topping at the half-priced special) won out.

While the pizza was prepared (the crust was hand-made), we munched on fresh, substantial house salads ($3.50) each. The pizza arrived next, hot from the oven, heavy on toppings, with a gooey layer of cheese covering a rich tomato sauce.

While I miss the warm, upscale feel of the former restaurant, this new incarnation most likely will satisfy concert-goers who want a quick bite before a show -- or who want to keep the party going after the last encore.

Taste Test

Appetizer:

House salad, $3.50 each

Entree:

14-inch pizza with four toppings, $9 (regular price $18)

By Julie Cope Saetre / Indy.com correspondent