At Willi's Wine Bar, "WHO IS WILLI" is a question we hear a lot.

And regardless of what you may have heard, WILLI was a dog. A beloved pure-breed party animal with a nose for mischief. When not involved in interminable bridge evenings with Omar Sharif and Colette, to whom we owe his nom de plume, he was to be found sniffing about in the Jardin du Palais Royal, only melting unseen into the tulips when approached by Jean Cocteau. This gentleman, in a rare lack of taste, was invariably accompanied by a cat.

Willi’s life, well lived, ended in Champagne, which is what we drink to his health, every year on the 13th of October. His tomb lies below the gas-meter to the left of the front door of the bar.

These days you are likely to meet Jaja in the bar or out and about. Rumour has it he is Willi’s great great grand-spawn. 

But who is to know ? Willi — of course — never admitted to the slightest indiscretion.

There is, as yet, only one poster in Willi's Bottle Art collection to feature a dog : The very excellent Olympian poster by M.H Jeeves, to mark the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. But he is present almost everywhere else : on the glasses, the menu, the bags, the aprons, a Circol book, the stickers we put on the poster tubes before sending them off to you lovely people... Willi's everywhere you look !