I live in Chicago. I am of Southern Italian heritage. We basically invented GOOD pizza. (Southern Italians in Chicago.) I don't like "New York Style" Pizza, I don't like thin crust pizza, I don't eat at chains like Pizza Hut or Dominos. Even though I can't eat Dairy Products, many of the Italian run local Italian restaurants will make you a pizza with no cheese, or we make them at home with soy cheese.
In Chicago, pizza is a very tender subject. Why anyone near Chicago would even go to a "chain" with all the good restaurants we have here is a mystery to me.
I'm a Pizza and Italian food snob. IMO, Stuffed crust pizza is an abomination unto the Italian! "White Pizza" is even worse. Real Italian pizza, made the Roman way is more like Foccacia. My Great Grandmother, my Gramma and all my relatives would make "pizza" that most would consider focaccia. None of them ever put cheese (other than a sprinkling of Romano or Parmesan, once in a while) on a pizza, nor would they put tomato sauce. My grandparents wouldn't even eat any pizza with cheese and tomato. "Tomato is for gravy." (Italian tomato sauce for pasta.)
When we have "American Style" pizza, (meaning it has cheese or at least toppings and tomato sauce) it's thick, not too many ingredients (Italians do NOT eat "garbage pizza, with a dozen toppings, or 6 different "meats" ) and the crust is rolled over to keep the sauce from running, and the crust is NEVER filled with anything, least of all cheese.
Sorry, but I was brought up in a family that came from poor peasant stock, who abhorred bread and oil, as that was all they often had to eat in the Old Country. (Now bread and oil is stock and trade in most high end Italian restaurants, my ancestors only ate it to keep alive. They never ate it again once they came to this country and could eat pasta, like the Contadina used to in the old country.) They honored food and would have rather gone hungry again than ate less than great food. IMO, all chains are far from great. I like small hole in the wall Italian restaurants for our pizza (NO CHAINS) or to make it at home. (although, I admit, I LOVE bread and oil. I must be a throw back to my roots. My family would only eat Italian bread with butter, the way the "rich people" ate it.)
I am not at all different than any Chicago born Italian. That's just the way we are, very opinionated about our pizza, our sauce and our pasta. Most of my Italian relatives won't even eat pizza or pasta from ANY restaurant, as it rarely measures up to home made. We have a Southern Italian/Sicilian place near our house, we know the owner. He is the owner of ONE restaurant, not a chain (he's Sicilian, so he's Way Southern) and we eat there or make our Italian food at home.
Talk to any Chicago Born Italian. They will feel the same way I do. You wouldn't catch me dead in a chain pizza restaurant. My grandparents would come back to haunt me if I did. I could see my Papa, he'd smack me on the head and say, "Watsamatta You? You no eata dissa dog shit!"
What other people like is up to them, but don't think your chains are so good UNTIL you've eaten in a little storefront Italian Place in Little Italy, run by a guy named "Tony" or "Mikey" and then compare.
You'll know it's a good place, because the owners kids or grandkids will be running around the kitchen and the restaurant and there will be a lot of yelling in the place. LOTS of yelling.