A La Carte & Art

A La Carte & Art, Mountain View’s art and food event, scheduled 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 17 and 18, kicks off the festival season with live music, crafts and snacks as well as a chef demonstration tent.

The free event, held on Castro Street, will include a juried art show, a farmers market, children’s activities and complimentary facials, hand massages and minimakeovers from Burt’s Bees and Maybelline.

Eleven bands will play a variety of jazz, world beat, party music and more. In addition to prepared foods, the festival will serve wines, microbrews and margaritas. Local chefs will offer cooking demonstrations both days, sharing tips and samples of dishes such as coconut curry shrimp and bacon butterscotch brownies.

The “kids zone” at the corner of Mercy and Castro streets will include amusement rides, temporary tattoos and a virtual reality motion theater, which synchronizes sensory simulators with projections on a movie screen.

Proceeds from A La Carte & Art will benefit the Central Business Association, a local non-profit organization.

For more information, visit www.miramarevents.com/alacarte.

Party at the Windmill

The Friends of Rengstorff House advocacy group has scheduled a dedication ceremony for a recently donated historical windmill 5 p.m. Monday.

The windmill accompanies a tank house at 3070 N. Shoreline Blvd. Charles Grant, chairman of the committee to secure and restore the windmill, will offer an historical perspective on the operation and use of windmills.

The tank house and windmill flank Rengstorff House, which is open to the public three days a week for docent-led tours. The Friends of Rengstorff House is a group that promotes public awareness of the house and the early history of Mountain View.

Refreshments will be served.

For more information, visit www.r-house.org.