I was in Huntsville visiting Intergraph for a few days with colleagues and us Chicagoans missed pizza. Then one day we saw this chain pizza restaurant and jumped at it. It was like eating cardboard with painted yellow cheese.
I know exactly what you are talking about deep dish pizza such as from grocery store. It never cooks in the middle and the crust remains mushy in the middle.
The deep dish pizza in Chicago in the 1960’s was a totally different animal. I think they fried the crust first in a thick iron skillet. It was crispy throughout, never mushy. The pizza at Uno’s & Duo’s in downtown Chicago never used tomato paste which is what you get in most deep dish pizza. They used cooked fresh tomatoes, and that divine sausage chunks imported from Italy. The pizza arrived in that iron skillet sizzling hot at your table along with a spatula to dish it out. I am a good eater but 2 slices would stuff me up! In their heydays in early 60’s, on weekend evenings, the waiting room was packed with 100+ people standing in a smallish 12x15 room. But obviously the wait was worth it. I have traveled to every major city and never found pizza like that.
Been there, done that. You're sooooooo right!