Why Bucks Coal Fired Pizza is scaling back on its viral iguana pizza
By Christy Waite
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NORTH PALM BEACH, Florida (WPTV) — Bucks Coal Fired Pizza in North Palm Beach will not be offering a pizza topping that went viral on social media.
Our Christy Waite connected with Frankie Cecere, the owner of Bucks, to learn how the idea of iguana pizza began.
“My buddy hit me up and was like, ‘How do you feel about me bringing in some iguana meat and making iguana pizza?’ I said, absolutely,” Cecere said.
Cecere said it was the first time he had ever made an iguana pizza, but his shop serves meats like gator and venison.
The video went viral during Florida’s historic cold snap. While iguanas were falling from trees, Bucks was expanding their menu. The video inspires customers to try something new.
“We have received about 1,500 calls for iguana pizza. It’s highly sought after, apparently,” Cecere said. “We were getting 200 to 300 calls a day.”
Those calls also led to complaints and a visit from the Health Department.
“People called in saying we had live iguanas in house like an animal cruelty issue,” he said. “We don’t have live iguanas here.”
Despite not having, selling, or killing iguanas, he has decided to scale back and not serve iguana meat, at least for now.
Cecere tells WPTV that he is currently looking for a vendor to supply iguana and is working to learn more about iguana serving regulations.
“I thought it would fall under catch and cook — you don’t need a license to harvest iguanas, because they’re an invasive species — but apparently, there’s no statute for it,” he said
From tree to table, invasive to innovative, it seems iguana has become just as controversial as pineapple on pizza.
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