Michael K. Williams played Omar Little, the righteous stickup man in “The Wire,” and now plays Chalky White, the bootlegger on “Boardwalk Empire,” so he is a big deal in the Brooklyn housing projects where he grew up. Standing in Gloria’s 3, a Trinidadian restaurant in nearby Crown Heights last Thursday, he said he had fun running around his old neighborhood. But he added that it was the man he was with who created most of the fuss.

“All the little kids were running after him,” Mr. Williams said, indicating his lanky dining companion.

Anthony Bourdain tends to get noticed. The chef turned televised tour guide is macho but not overbearing, profane without being coarse, and tall and handsome. How handsome? I was at an outdoor social event with my wife some years ago when he passed by, and she was so transfixed by him that she walked into a bush. I hate him for that, but am unsurprised that his charmed life is about to add a new chapter.

Mr. Bourdain and Mr. Williams were in Brooklyn filming the final episode of Mr. Bourdain’s rough-and-ready culinary travel show “No Reservations,” which has run for eight seasons on the Travel Channel. Last Tuesday, CNN and Mr. Bourdain announced that he would move to the cable news channel to make an as-yet-unnamed travel show that will be shown on the weekends.