RESTAURANTS : A Parisian Bistro With an English Accent

A narrow, polished wooden bar . . . exposed beam ceilings . . . clean, white-napped tables brightened with small white pots of flowers . . . a marble-topped sideboard where perfect cheeses wait ready beside handsome traditional desserts . . . a menu that ranges from goujonnettes of sole to rabbit fricassee and roast duck with juniper berries . . . and best of all, an immense wine list that offers, among other things, what is quite possibly the best selection of Rhone wines in Paris. Clearly, this is a great French bistro--a Parisian classic.

There’s one thing a trifle unexpected about the place, though: It is owned not by some red-faced old Frenchman in a blue apron but by a young, nattily attired Englishman named Mark Williamson--whose stated mission in Paris is “to get the French to taste wines they might otherwise ignore.”

This is Willi’s Wine Bar, near the Place des Victoires and the Palais Royale in Paris’ first arrondissement . Williamson, who cooked in London, Paris (“at everything from canteens to 2-stars,” he says) and in the south of France, opened the place in 1980. He also worked for the legendary English-born Paris wine merchant Steven Spurrier, who is best known for the famous California-vs.-France wine tasting he staged in 1976. “Most French wine bars are a little staid; they just give their customers what they’re used to having,” Williamson says. “Our idea was to try to do things a bit differently.”

Indeed, the Willi’s menu, though decidedly bistro-ish in form, is full of little surprises. Sometimes there’s a wonderful brandade or coarse puree of haddock (instead of the traditional salt cod variety), served with a red bean salad--the perfect contrast. A tarte of sauteed sweet red and yellow peppers comes atop an unusual shortbread crust. In place of an ordinary salad, you’ll find one of salsify and wisps of fresh black truffle, dressed with creamy leek sauce. Filets of sandre or sablefish are dusted with bread crumbs, sauteed and served with black olives, black truffle pieces and zucchini. The aforementioned goujonnettes of sole (strips of fish cut to approximately resemble tiny gudgeon or smelt, and a staple French bistro dish) are enhanced with orange zest. Beef is braised with a vaguely woody flavor that turns out to be vanilla.

The ideas for such dishes are Williamson’s; he goes to the great wholesale market at Rungis, near Charles de Gaulle Airport, twice weekly, to buy top-quality raw materials. However, the identity of the working kitchen personnel changes from time to time; thus the skill with which dishes are interpreted can fluctuate. Even at its best, this is not sophisticated haute cuisine , nor does it pretend to be. This is bistro food--reanimated, rethought and given a little English spin. As such, it has found a steady and happy audience of French and Anglo-Saxon diners alike.

A big part of the draw at Willi’s is, of course, the wine. At any given time, roughly 20 wines are offered by the glass--from a Torres Gran Vina Sol Reserva at $3 a glass to a 1982 Jacqueline Jayer Nuits-Saint-Georges or a 1975 Butler & Nephew port at $8. By the bottle, something like 250 choices are available, almost a third of them from the Rhone (with all the right names represented--Chave, Guigal, Grippat, Clape, Vieux Telegraphe, etc.). Raveneau, Tollot-Beaut, and Pousse d’Or are among the Burgundian monikers present; there are Domaine Tempier wines from Bandol, Avignonesi and Antinori from Italy, Acacia and Chateau Montelena from California and all sorts of things from Bordeaux. What’s more, everything is kept and served superbly--I’ve been to 3-star restaurants that don’t understand or honor wine as well.

Willi’s Wine Bar, 13 rue des Petits-Champs, 1st arrondissement, tel. 42.61.05.09. Dinner for two (food only): $50-$65.

Around the corner from Willi’s is another Williamson enterprise, in partnership with (and run by) ex-winemaker Tim Johnston, a fellow Englishman. This one is called Juveniles--and there’s a story behind the name. Williamson called his first place Willi’s simply because that was a contraction of his own name. But because Colette once lived just behind where Willi’s is now, many Parisians assumed that the name referred to one of Colette’s husbands, Henry Gauthier-Villars, who used the pen name “Willy.” To keep it in the family, Williamson and Johnston wanted to call their new enterprise Goudeket’s, after another of Colette’s husbands. When his heirs objected, they turned to still another ex-Colette mate, Henry de Jouvenel--and to avoid any problems with his family, turned his name into its English near-equivalent.

Juveniles is much more of a bar than a restaurant. It has a sort of contemporary cafe look: plain modern-style chairs and tables, high-style ‘80s light fixtures, and walls decorated both with photographs of Colette and with children’s paintings of wine bottles (juvenalia, as it were).

The food is straightforward and simple--Spanish omelets, eggplant caviar, terrific anchovy mousse with crunchy toast, salmon or chicken salad, and sandwiches (ham with celery remoulade , chicken with tarragon mayonnaise). Hot bistro plates, more conventional than those at Willi’s, are also served--steak with shallots, grilled chicken, a wonderful French reading of bangers and mash (listed as saucisse couteau de Monsieur Duval , puree de pommes de terre ), etc. Fewer wines are found here than at Willi’s, and they are usually less serious (and less expensive). Recent choices by the glass included a Domaine de Pelaquie Laudun Blanc at $2.85, a Domaine Lamartine Cahors at $4, and a Domaine des Trois Serres Muscat de Rivesaltes at $5. Cocktails (most notably the sidecar and the Negroni) and a small selection of whiskey and brandy are also available. A small selection of wines is sold retail from the front of the place.

Juveniles, 46 rue de Richelieu, 1st arrondissement, tel. 42.97.46.49. Dinner for two (food only): $30-$40.