If one squinted — hard — D.C.’s brunch scene offered a glimpse into carefree normalcy on a breezy Sunday afternoon.

Around noon, the patio at Founding Farmers on Pennsylvania Avenue was in full swing. Several sets of couples drank coffee from white mugs and talked. A family shared a plate piled high with fries. A toddler stood in front of her chair and drank from a sippy cup. Almost everyone in the largely white crowd wore summer dresses, T-shirts, and shorts. A small group excitedly thanked the host several times as he led them to their seats.

“Brunch makes people happy. Brunch makes the staff happy. Brunch makes the guests happy,” co-owner Dan Simons said. “It’s definitely the time of year.”

After more than two months of stay-at-home orders, some Washingtonians returned to one of the city’s pre-pandemic weekend traditions. But little about it was normal.

At Founding Farmers, fellow patrons were kept at a distance. Staff swirled around the patio in masks. And cracked windows glinted in the morning sunshine.

Intense protests over the death of George Floyd rocked the District for the second night in a row on Saturday, and a number of stores, restaurants, and other businesses in the immediate vicinity were damaged.

Cracks radiated out of two windows at Founding Farmers, and the rest of the block was littered with broken glass and graffiti. Still, Simons told DCist there was no question that brunch would continue on Sunday, adding that the protests were completely separate from reopening.

“For me, property damage is minor compared to what the issues are,” he said. “The windows will be replaced.”

He also tweeted support for the protesters, writing: “The rage is justified. I would rather it be expressed peacefully, but if I need to ‘suffer’ some broken property, let’s be real, that isn’t suffering. Our restaurant is open, we are serving guests right now on a lovely patio, in lovely weather.”

It was the third day of D.C.’s Phase 1 reopening, which allows restaurants to reopen for outdoor dine-in seating with restrictions in place, including limiting parties and seating patrons 6 feet apart. Local restaurants scrambled to comply with the new restrictions this week, all while wondering if customers would show up.

Around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, about four groups of two or three people sat around the patio at Sette Osteria, but all declined to be interviewed. An hour later, a couple sat alone on the patio at Lupo Verde, a half hour after it opened for brunch. Before noon on 14th Street, there appeared to be more people idling on the sidewalk outside the Wydown or Dolcezza for pickup coffee or in line for Trader Joe’s than at brunch.

Around 1 p.m., brunchgoers lingered at several establishments on 17th Street NW, with each patio at half capacity at Floriana, Agora, and Dupont Italian Kitchen. Nearby at Duke’s Grocery, three men sat for brunch on an otherwise empty patio as a chef grilled nearby.

The patios outside of Wonderland Ballroom and Red Rocks on 11th Street in Columbia Heights were half full around 5:45 p.m. But not all restaurants with outdoor space immediately welcomed customers back. A sign outside of Room 11 promised that the patio would reopen next weekend.

Despite reopening guidance that customers must wear face masks when not eating or drinking, most people left their masks on the table or pulled under their chins as they chatted with tablemates. In contrast, restaurant workers uniformly appeared to be taking the restrictions seriously.

At Agora, servers walked around to patrons in groups mainly of 4-6 people while wearing masks and plastic face shields.

Founding Farmers manager John Reidy said that guests use single-serving silverware and are asked to wear a mask if they go indoors to use the bathroom.

Nicole Via y Rada, who was eating with her boyfriend, said she felt safe and comfortable with the precautions.

“Our waiter said at the beginning that if we wanted him to do or stop doing something to let him know,” she said. The restaurant has sentimental meaning — it was the site of the couple’s first date. But they say they aren’t rushing to return to dining out once a week as they did before the pandemic, instead largely sticking to takeout and delivery.

Restaurants weren’t the only businesses that were allowed to reopen starting on Friday. At Edge’s Barbershop on U Street, a barber in a mask carefully clipped a man’s hair.

But the return to some degree of public life was largely overshadowed by protests throughout the weekend, making for scenes of striking dissonance.

On Saturday night, demonstrators marched past patrons eating a leisurely dinner at BlackFinn Ameripub’s patio, while a car caravan slowly made its way down the street, honking in protest.

A striking dichotomy. Folks eating outside on this first weekend of reopening. And a protest. pic.twitter.com/DhcCo6aFTu

— Matt Blitz (@WhyBlitz) May 30, 2020

Meanwhile, Brasserie Beck, near Mt. Vernon Square, drew the ire of social media when it criticized protesters on Friday night for marching past its patio and “yelling at customers as they enjoy a post-Covid, first weekend out,” in a now-deleted tweet. A second tweet that clarified that the tweet was meant as an “apology to customers” was similarly poorly received and later deleted.

Brasserie Beck did not respond to DCist’s request for comment.

In another instance, @MarcelsBeckDC posted and then deleted two tweets that criticized protesters and said they disturbed their customers during reopening. pic.twitter.com/gs1MIZ2Jo1

— Chelsea Cirruzzo 🏡 (@ChelseaCirruzzo) May 31, 2020

Tensions flared in other ways, as well, between local residents who chose to take advantage of reopening and those who didn’t. On Saturday, social media users criticized the Lot in Clarendon with photos that appeared to show the beer garden packed with people. On its Facebook page, the Lot said its occupancy never exceeded 50% and other safety protocols were taken, including seating patrons 6 feet apart and having staff wear masks. Arlington County Board Member Katie Cristol later said that officials visited the establishment and confirmed they were operating in accordance with the rules (she also apologized for her own criticism).

Meanwhile, as brunch hours wound down on Sunday, a third day of major protests began in D.C., and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington encouraged its members to consider pausing outdoor service.