Once a blip on the slow train ride from San Jose to San Francisco, downtown Mountain View has become a bona fide destination. Its fruit orchards were long ago replaced by buildings housing tech giants like Google, Intuit, and VeriSign, and thanks to a roughly $100 million face-lift in the early ’90s, Castro Street became a wander-worthy corridor lined with curbside cafés, potted plants, and even the occasional busker. Over the past few years, though, new restaurants and bars have kicked the action up a few notches. Yen Yip, whose family runs the Chinese herb shop E&W Natural Way, has witnessed this evolution firsthand. “The whole street, especially in summer, is packed with people these days,” she says. Restaurants do a brisk business for lunch, and in the evening, an ethnically diverse crowd of young families stroll around while high-schoolers hang out and sip bubble tea (an Asian beverage made from tapioca). The median age of the hood’s residents is young—34—though many of them can afford only apartments here. On weekends, clubbers hit hot spots like Buddha Lounge and Monte Carlo, and diners flock from all over Silicon Valley for Hawaiian barbecue, Michelin-starred French, and a slew of other cuisines.

THE GRUB
Zucca Ristorante is the rare white-tablecloth place that’s glad to set up a booster chair. Istanbul-born owner Mehmet Degerli serves pan-Mediterranean fare: French, Italian, Israeli, Greek, Spanish, Jordanian…did he leave anyone out? Try a meze plate followed by crab fettuccine or braised lamb shank. 186 Castro St.

Step over the garden bridge to Golden Wok, where you can eat dim sum to your heart’s delight. Savory turnip cakes, delicate bean-curd rolls, and the ever-popular har gow (shrimp dumplings)
are only a few choices. 895 Villa St.

Servers at Xanh, a Vietnamese fusion eatery that opened last year, wear its name on big, silver belt buckles. Mounds of papaya salad, clay pots full of sweet, succulent catfish, and a trickling
wall fountain keep the customers calm. 185 Castro St.

Chiva's Indian Restaurant & Bar turns out fresh, flavorful fare in an inviting space painted with a blue sky and clouds. The exceptionally light, flaky naan is perfect for sopping up butter chicken and lamb roganjosh. 800 California St., Ste. 100.

Recipient of a coveted star in the Michelin guide to the Bay Area, Chez TJ  is nestled in an 1890s Victorian house on a tranquil, tree-lined street just off the main drag. Executive chef Christopher Kostow earns his accolades with a constantly rotating menu of polished French cuisine. 938 Villa St.

THE HANGOUTS
A farmers’ market springs up in the Caltrain station parking lot near Centennial Plaza on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It gets so packed, you have to peer over shoulders at the produce. 600 W. Evelyn Ave.

The back patio at Molly MaGees Irish Pub is the place to be on weekend nights—if you and your beer can find a cranny to duck into. Stake out a spot before 11 p.m. 241 Castro St.

BookBuyers invites you to linger among more than

300,000 used books, CDs and tapes, and more. You’ll lose track of time gazing at the art books and the perpetually half-price calendars. Open till midnight on weekends, the store honors trade credit for all eternity. 317 Castro St.

WHAT IT COSTS
To rent... $2,100 for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment at 851 Church Street.
To buy... $969,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in the Old Mountain View neighborhood.

ON THIS SPOT
Back in the 1860s, Maria Trinidad Peralta de Castro donated a portion of her family’s rancho as a community cemetery. In 1996—almost a century after the last burial here—more than two dozen graves were acciden­tally unearthed during construction of an underground parking structure for the adjacent Mountain View Public Library . The suddenly exhumed were reburied nearby.

THE TALK
Two summers ago, a cabal of neighbors hungry for more than trendy restaurants bombarded city council members with e-mail urging them to lease the ground floor of the city’s newest parking garage to Zanotto’s Downtown Market, a San Jose–based grocer. To the distress of the Castro activists, money won out over the will of the people: the council voted to go with Longs Drugs, which forged a $3.5 million lease agreement with the city—nearly $1 million more than Zanotto’s offered.

SHOPFRONTS
Therapy, the fun kind, has come to Silicon Valley. The latest branch of San Francisco’s Valencia Street fave now serves fashion-forward Valley gals and guys who crave Paul Frank accessories, retro-cool clothes, and nostalgic trinkets. Owners Wayne Whelan and Jing Chen initially scoped out Palo Alto’s University Avenue but on a tip from a customer headed a few exits south. 250 Castro St.
Be dazzled at Global Beads, a cavernous store brimming with beads and baubles in hundreds of shades and styles, plus miscellaneous hippie gear: flowing skirts, incense burners, and jewelry from all over the world. 345 Castro St.

E&W Natural Way is a one-stop herbal medicine and tea shop. You’d be hard put to find more qualified purveyors: Yen Yip’s family counts three generations of Chinese herbalists among them. Marvel at the floor-to-ceiling selection of teas—from artichoke to oolong—and gawk at the waist-high tubs of ginseng root. 762 W. Dana St.

ONLY HERE
Last fall, Google one-upped San Francisco by beaming free Wi-Fi over most of Mountain View. More than 500 freeloaders-to-be showed up for community training sessions on how to access the service.