A restaurant surviving 100 years is rare enough. One that’s stayed in the same family for four generations across that entire span is rarer still. BiCE Restaurant Group has done exactly that, tracing its roots back to 1926 Milan, when founder Beatrice “Bice” Ruggeri opened the original BiCE and built a culinary tradition that her family has carried forward ever since, now under the leadership of fourth-generation CEO Raffaele Ruggeri.
Today the group operates across Florida, with locations in Palm Beach, Naples and Orlando alongside sister concepts and franchise operations in other markets, all anchored in the same Italian hospitality the brand was built on. Reservations, locations and the group’s centennial celebration details are available at bicegroup.com.
What is BiCE Restaurant Group?
BiCE Restaurant Group is an Italian restaurant company founded in Milan in 1926, built around traditional Italian dishes and a family hospitality philosophy that’s been passed down across four generations. The founder, Beatrice “Bice” Ruggeri, famously brought her nine younger siblings from Tuscany to Milan as the business grew, establishing an early pattern of family opportunity-building that the Ruggeri family has continued for a century. The group’s current footprint centers on Florida, with BiCE locations in Palm Beach, Naples and Orlando, plus sister concepts including Café Med, with locations in West Palm Beach and Eugene, Oregon, and Salute in Palm Beach.
Across all of its restaurants, the group’s stated philosophy is “dining without compromise” — an emphasis on seasonal ingredients and traditional technique rather than trend-chasing, which has arguably been a factor in the brand’s unusually long lifespan.
What stands out
A century of continuous family ownership
Very few restaurant groups make it to 100 years at all, and even fewer stay under the direction of the founding family the entire time. BiCE’s history under four generations of the Ruggeri family gives it a depth of institutional knowledge that newer restaurant groups simply can’t match.
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Italian tradition, not a themed interpretation of it
Because the group’s roots trace directly back to Milan in 1926, its approach to Italian cuisine reads as inherited rather than researched — a meaningful difference for diners who can tell the difference between an authentic trattoria sensibility and a generic “Italian-American” restaurant.
A hospitality philosophy built into the business model
The founder’s practice of bringing family members into the business and giving them a path forward has echoed through a century of BiCE’s operations, and the group frames its current centennial celebration explicitly as a thank-you to the generations of employees who’ve welcomed guests like family.
A centennial celebration worth timing a visit around
BiCE’s 100-day celebration, running through January 8, 2027, includes a daily drawing for a $100 gift card among OpenTable reservations and a new private-label pasta sauce made with hand-selected Italian ingredients — giving regulars and new visitors alike a reason to book a table during the anniversary window.
Sister concepts for different occasions
Beyond the BiCE locations themselves, the group’s Café Med and Salute concepts give diners other ways to experience the same family’s hospitality, whether they’re looking for something more casual or a different setting entirely. That variety also means the Ruggeri family’s hospitality isn’t locked to a single format — a guest who loves the flagship BiCE experience in Palm Beach can find a related, complementary version of it at Café Med or Salute depending on the occasion.
Who it’s for
BiCE Restaurant Group suits diners who want a special-occasion Italian meal with real history behind it, rather than a chain restaurant borrowing Italian imagery without the substance. It’s a natural choice for anniversary dinners, business meals or visitors to Palm Beach, Naples or Orlando looking for a dependable upscale option, and the current centennial promotions make it a particularly good window to book a reservation through OpenTable. Diners who appreciate restaurants with a documented, multi-generational story — rather than a recently invented brand narrative — will likely find BiCE’s hospitality philosophy resonates in a way that’s hard to manufacture in a newer concept. Groups planning a celebration of their own — an anniversary, a milestone birthday, a retirement dinner — may also appreciate the symmetry of marking the occasion at a restaurant that’s spent a century doing the same thing for its own history.
What makes it worth considering
The clearest case for BiCE is longevity backed by substance: a restaurant group doesn’t survive four generations and a century in business without consistently delivering on food and hospitality. The centennial celebration adds a timely reason to visit now, with a daily gift card drawing and a new pasta sauce rolling out specifically for the occasion, but the underlying appeal — family-run Italian dining with a century of refinement behind it — would hold up regardless of the anniversary. For diners weighing newer concepts against something with a verified track record, BiCE’s history does a lot of the convincing on its own.
Verdict
BiCE Restaurant Group has turned a century of family ownership into a genuine point of difference, delivering Italian hospitality that feels inherited rather than invented, with a centennial celebration that makes now an especially good time to visit.
