WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, the White House reopened as the world’s first federally franchised dining complex — a bold new chapter in the American experiment.

The scent hit first: fryer grease, cloying vanilla, and a synthetic note like…

The light in the bottling shed hadn’t changed.

Same humming fluorescents overhead, same yellowed glow curling across the concrete.

—bright and waxy, a sweet note beneath the metallic hum of the cooler—as the pantry door in Kittery swings open and parents edge past a cart of cereal.

Megan Shapiro-Ross, sleeves shoved high, moves like a line cook: scanning, swapping…

The bell above the café door rings twice—once for Nancy’s regulars and once for the news they haven’t seen yet.

On the chalkboard, she’s erased the price of a small drip coffee.

.

Lisa Tate had walked her rows a hundred times before, but this was the first time she felt like she was walking a graveyard.

It started with a knock.

Then a pause.