BICE groups focus is on furthering its reputation as the Premiere Italian Restaurant company throughout the world. The network of Bice restaurants spanning the world today began 90 years ago in Milano, Italy by Beatrice Ruggeri – also know as Bice. She was the first child of a family of 10, and so had to help her parents raise her young siblings almost as they were her own. They lived on a farm where all had to work on the land and help with all chores, so she learned a lot of things that would help her create her future. For years she was encouraged to open her “cucina” to the public as she was known for her extraordinary hospitality and personal warmth, and in 1926, when her husband Gino asked her to move to America with him where he had previously been to make good money, she decided that she would rather try a city like Milano so that she could stay close to her family. They agreed to open a “trattoria” – loosely translated as a friendly gathering place with a farm to table approach. With Bice in the kitchen and her brothers and sisters serving in the dining room, il ristorante “Da Gino e Bice”, or Bice as it would later be known, had a family feeling. The first customers said it was like being at the home of a friend, as Bice hoped they would. Photos credit: Erica Dunhill