You Can Trade A Python For Pizza At This Wild Restaurant In The Florida Everglades

Wildman's Pizza, Pasta & Pythons is a casual spot in Everglades City, Florida that boasts a diverse menu. It features everything from hand-tossed and Detroit-style pizzas to calzones and strombolis (which aren't as similar as you may think) to marinara pasta with meatballs. Yet perhaps the most interesting thing that's cooking over at this Florida pizzeria is a very special deal: The restaurant claims it will give customers a pizza in exchange for a python. The deal is listed as the "Large House Specialty" on the menu, and it's no joke — Wildman's Pizza, Pasta & Pythons offers a large $24 pizza free of charge to any diner brave enough to bring one of these giant, slithering snakes into the establishment.

Wildlife conservationist and television personality Dusty "Wildman" Crum owns this reptile-themed pizzeria. He's made it his mission to help rid the Florida Everglades of the Burmese python, an invasive species that has long plagued the state's ecosystem, arguably ever since Hurricane Andrew loosed a number of these reptiles from a breeding facility in 1992. While free pizza is almost always a great deal, we don't recommend venturing into the Everglades and hunting down one of these constricting snakes to get it — just shell out the $24 instead.

Though we can't confirm whether or not anyone has ever taken Dusty Crum up on his daring deal, we do know that Wildman's Pizza, Pasta & Pythons has been serving up pies since October 2023. The restaurant is pretty popular and, as of this writing, holds the top spot on Yelp for the best pizza in Everglades City (though it has yet to appear on our list of the best pizza shops in Florida). According to reviews on the restaurant's Yelp page, lucky diners sometimes get their pies made by the famous python hunter himself — if he's not out in the Everglades offering swamp buggy tours or looking for snakes, that is.

However, Wildman's Pizza, Pasta & Pythons is more than just a restaurant; it's also a community hub for python hunters. The establishment is an under-the-radar meeting spot for participants in the Florida Python Challenge, a 10-day competition wherein hunters extract the invasive Burmese snakes from South Florida in an attempt to curb population growth. On June 12, 2025, Crum shared on Facebook that his restaurant will kick off the year's python challenge with pizza and other specials. The 2025 competition will run from July 11 to 20. Crum expressed his hope that members of the python-hunting community will "meet up and swap stories" at his pizzeria.