Principessa Ristorante

Principessa Ristorante. Boca Raton

The Major Food Group Treatment

When Major Food Group. The New York-born operators behind Carbone, Sadelle's, The Grill, and ZZ's Club. Chose The Boca Raton for their first South Florida statement restaurant, every operator in the state paid attention. MFG does not open casually. They build rooms, they build brands, and they build the kind of demand curves that produce a six-week wait list within a month of opening. Principessa, which opened in late 2023 on the lobby level of the newly-rebuilt Tower at The Boca Raton, is the South Florida operation that now defines how the rest of the peninsula wants to eat.

The room is a $20 million realization of Lake Como-villa grandeur. Hand-painted tile imported from Amalfi. A massive central chandelier hand-blown in Murano. Banquettes upholstered in deep green velvet. Floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto a waterfront terrace that overlooks the Intracoastal. On a warm Thursday night, the terrace is the single most desirable table in the city, and the wait list is managed accordingly. The room feels less like a restaurant and more like an invitation into someone's very expensive villa, which is exactly the trick Major Food Group have been executing against in New York and Miami for a decade.

The kitchen is Northern Italian with the MFG signature flourishes. Oversized portions, confident sauces, a willingness to be loud about butter and truffle when butter and truffle are required. The pasta program is handmade on-site and runs several courses deep. Spicy rigatoni vodka has become the signature order. Tagliolini al tartufo, made with 36-egg-yolk dough and Alba white truffle in season, is among the finest truffle pasta currently served in Florida. The veal Milanese for two is a show piece. Pounded thin, breaded, served bone-out on a silver platter with a side of cacio e pepe.

The Scene

Principessa's scene is its second product. The bar, built from hand-cast bronze and marble, runs the length of the room and is populated by the kind of crowd that tells you a restaurant is currently at its peak. Palm Beach regulars, Miami weekenders, visiting New Yorkers, the occasional hedge fund principal treating the table next door. The DJ program runs Thursday through Saturday, with the volume calibrated so that the dining room can still hold conversation while the bar runs at a different energy altogether.

The wine list is extensive, leaning Italian but with a global reserve section that reads like a shortlist from Sotheby's. Barolo, Brunello, Amarone all well represented. A small but serious Burgundy section. Champagne is a religion. Krug, Dom, Salon, Cristal all available by the bottle and by the flight. For the table hosting a birthday, Principessa's wine program is built to be shown off.

Service is confident and knowledgeable, trained in the MFG style. Warm, engaged, willing to tell you what to order without requiring a question. Captains remember regulars. Bartenders remember what you drank last time. The restaurant's entire operational logic is built on becoming somewhere you want to return to, and the service team executes that mandate at every table.

Who This Restaurant Is For

Principessa is for the celebration. It is the milestone birthday where you want the room to notice when the cake arrives. It is the anniversary where you want the bar scene to be a part of the evening. It is the client dinner where you want Boca Raton to feel like Miami and Miami to feel like Manhattan. It is the proposal that wants witnesses. The dining room will quietly orchestrate an applause when the moment happens. It is for the diner who understands that some restaurants are not just restaurants, they are the current answer to where the conversation is.

Book three weeks minimum. Request the terrace if weather permits. Order the rigatoni vodka, the veal Milanese, and something serious from the Barolo list. This is the restaurant South Florida is currently rotating around.