'Everglades Pie' Sparks Outrage With Topping Made of Invasive Reptile Meat
By Peter Burke
A South Florida pizzeria has gone viral for a video showing its owner making a pizza with a topping unique to the region.
Bucks Coal Fired Pizza in Lake Park, Florida, created what owner Frankie Cecere called "the first iguana pizza in the history of mankind."
After corralling a handful of cold-stunned green iguanas during Florida's recent freeze and humanely euthanizing them, content creator Ryan Izquierdo took his unusual haul to Bucks Coal Fired Pizza.
The pizzeria's social media video showing Cecere, 39, making the "Everglades Pie" has racked up thousands of comments and millions of views.
Cecere's concoction was a white pizza topped with three types of meat: venison, bacon and "the star of the show."
Ryan Izquierdo, left, enlisted his friend, Bucks Coal Fired Pizza owner Frankie Cecere, to help make a pizza with iguana meat as a topping. (Bucks Coal Fired Pizza/@buckscoalfired)
The idea for the iguana pizza came from Izquierdo, who told Fox News Digital he'd been collecting cold-stunned iguanas when temperatures dropped low enough to immobilize the invasive reptiles.
During the two-day cold snap, Florida waived its law requiring permits to transport iguanas, allowing residents to nab the pesky invaders and bring them to the state's wildlife officers to be euthanized.
It's legal to humanely kill iguanas on private property in Florida.
What began as a one-off collaboration quickly turned into a flood of attention for the restaurant.
"The majority of people have loved it," Cecere told Fox News Digital. "We've probably received at least 1,500 calls asking if we have iguana available. A lot of people seem interested in purchasing it."
But not all feedback has been positive.
"We've had a fair amount of hatred coming our way," Cecere added, mentioning negative Google reviews and repeated complaints from "people just yelling at us on the phone for, I guess, making an iguana pizza in general."
Despite the interest, the iguana pizza is not available for customers to order.
Cecere said the pie was made specifically for the video and was prepared before the restaurant opened.
"It was kind of a one-off thing. We did it for a video," he said.
While the iguana topping was new, the restaurant is no stranger to unconventional ingredients.
Cecere said Bucks regularly serves other nontraditional meats that reflect Florida's outdoor culture.
In addition to venison, which is "a mainstay for us," gator tail is also on the menu, Cecere said.
Izquierdo, 27, said it didn't take many iguanas to make the pizza topping.
"We were able to use pretty much all the meat on the bone of just four iguana legs and a little bit of tail meat," he said.
Izquierdo's first bite was loaded with iguana meat.
"Unbelievable," he said after taking a bite of the pizza on camera.
He equated the taste to "frog legs" and called it "a little bit sweet."
Bucks Coal Fired Pizza is still looking into whether iguana meat could ever be offered through an approved vendor. But, for now, it remains off the menu, Cecere said.
"It was absolutely fantastic, and people really should be more open-minded, especially about using an invasive species for something that's good," Izquierdo told Fox News Digital.
"I mean, you can make all sorts of recipes with it. It is a delicacy in many places around the world. And I think iguana definitely belongs on pizza."
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