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A tall Brit with a dry sense of humour (see below) he operates the decidedly low-key, high-fun Willi’s Wine Bar and its elegant younger brother named for the jazzman Maceo Parker. I like to use the upstairs private dining room for special celebrations. We met in the bar area of Maceo over a few glasses of wine.

TG: When did you first come to Paris?
MW: 1975 to pursue my career as a cook.

TG: When and why did you come back to stay?
MW: I never left. One thing led to another, as is often the case. The French needed me & the queen wanted me to stay and annoy them.

TG: Where do you live?
MW: Palais Royal

TG: Why?
MW: Why not? Don’t you like it? Marché Montorgeuil & St. Eustache, more V.Libs per square metre than any other quartier, Good people (me), good wine merchant – Legrand, the Palais Royal Gardens, the Louvre, Theatre(s) the Opera (I never go). In fact since the Ministere des Finances left the area, it is a no-brainer. Oh, just in case you had not noticed there are some great restaurants too;

TG: Do you remember your first glass of wine?
MW: I recall many first glasses Vintage Bollinger, Hock & Mosel, 1947 Meursault that we cooked with, a ’62 Cheval Blanc that I drank naked. A picnic rosé in my uncle’s garden – but only because the girls were incredibly pretty.

TG: When did you open Willi’s?
MW: October 13, 1980

TG: What was the impetus?
MW: Wine, food & restauraturing differently. There was nothing like Willi’s back then. Even now Fish is the only place that comes close & is simply a cheap rip off. (That’s FISH owner Juan Sanchez in the photograph.) The range of wines proposed by the glass, the open approach to what is good, acceptable & interesting, the down to earth simplicity.

TG: Talk about the origin of the famous Willi’s posters and some of the famous people who have contributed?

MW: From the web site  www.williswinebar.us

The poster, said Cassandre, is an "art form that provides the painter with an ideal opportunity to communicate with a broad public." He was himself an illustrious demonstration of this point, having started out on his career as a graphic artist in order to subsidise his ambition as a painter and then finally becoming one of the greatest graphic inventors of modern times.

It was therefore an excellent idea on the part of Mark Williamson to have started up a collection of posters dedicated to his restaurant by going back to the roots with a new edition of one of the master's works.

Every year since then, the Willi's Wine Bar collection has been enriched by a new work, made specially for it by a contemporary artist.

Before Cassandre, at the turn of the last century, leading avant-garde artists such as Seurat, Picasso and, later, Bonnard, to name but a few, found the poster to be a privileged medium for capturing and communicating the visual essence of the modern life that so captivated them.

All the great modern movements, from Cubism to Futurism or Constructivism, discovered ways of using this new medium in accordance with their very diverse artistic objectives. The poster's graphic inventions, abridged modes of composition, symbolic vocabularies, effects of printed colour and technological developments all enriched their pictorial output. And the parameters particular to a well-made poster remain of great interest to many artists today.

The work of the elect assembly who have responded to Mark Williamson's request is a case in point: witness the structured graphics of Alberto Bali, the "naïve" drawing of Octave or the stylised painterly manner of Boisrond.

As for Hanabusa, the poster he made for 1993 is a splendid, droll and sensual icon reminiscent of Man Ray's woman-violin.

In his poster for 2003, Tom Fowler offers his own take on Cassandre's pared-down geometry, while Artur Cefai's funny and tender drawing takes its inspiration from Cubism.

The collection boasts a wide range of styles, whose variety is appreciated all the more clearly because they all illustrate the same theme. All these images represent concise and joyous variations on urban pleasures.

Ann Hindry, Paris, August 2005

TG: When and why did you open Maceo?
MW: My neighbour asked me to take over his (rather sleepy) starred Michelin restaurant the Mercure Galant. As I rarely say no, I did. But one star on the street is more than enough.

TG: Are you actively involved in menu planning and purchasing and to what extent does that inform your wine purchases at both properties?
MW: I choose all the wines we sell. My other job involves annoying the chefs.

TG: Who were the winemakers who most influenced your palate?
MW: In the ‘70s the Comte Lafon, Gerrard Potel, Marcel Gugal , Auguste Clape & Gerard Chave.

TG: What’s your favourite wine?
MW: Today it is a Palo Cortado VORS from Tradiçion. Yesterday it was a Teroldaego Rotaliano 2004 from Foratodi. Tomorrow we will see, a Cornas perhaps, or possibly a delicious young burgundy. My days are never without a glass or two of white, always different & in the summer fresh light & lively.

TG: What do you drink when just kicking back at home?
MW:  All of the above & more. No peace for the wicked Terrance.

TG: We recently drank your California Pinot Noir, Evening Land. Talk about that project and your aspirations for it?
MW: Core Purpose -To produce distinctive, luxury, estate-grown Pinot Noir from the Gardens of the Evening Lands.  Core Values  -Noble, sustainable and proprietary.

TG: How has Paris affected you professionally?
MW: You have to be seriously fucked up to put up with all this crap for 30 years. Guess what? I am.

TG: How has Paris affected your life?
MW: Measurably. The city is a beautiful place, but one gets used to that. I appreciate the openness of the people & their willingness to mix, try different things…like social reforms. I love the accessibility of the markets & the bistrots, the transport system & the art. There are some great gardens too, starting with the Palais Royal. For a good many years I have considered Paris my home. This allows me to mistreat it.

TG: And finally, how did Willi’s get its name? Williamson. But Colette, as things turned out, lived opposite on the Gardens & her first perverted lover was called Mr. Willi. Yes, I believe he made her suck it. But then Colette evolved to better men, to truffles & to chocolate. You cannot keep a good woman down.

Mark is a hands-on operator and can generally be found bouncing from one property to the other. Mention my name and he’ll no doubt give you a dose of his offbeat sense of humour while tending to your oenephilic needs.