This Restaurant Is America’s Favorite Pizza Chain for 2019

Mainstay chain pizza restaurants and local mom-and-pop pizza shops often compete for business—but neither have the honor of being America’s favorite pizza spot. According to a new poll from Harris Insights & Analytics, pizza restaurant Marco’s Pizza is the winner of the 2019 Pizza Chain of the Year award. If that choice surprises you, you’ll be even more shocked by America’s favorite coffee shop—it’s not Starbucks.

The Harris Poll’s annual EquiTrend study is one of the longest-running surveys in the United States. It surveys more than 77,000 people on more than 3,000 randomly selected brands in total. This year, they added nearly 100 new brands across 11 categories for Brand of the Year awards for everything from printers to footwear stores—not just food-related brands. In addition to public opinion, the poll uses their Brand Equity Index to calculate familiarity, quality and purchase considerations to determine the winners as well.

Last year, the winner was Blaze Pizza, a 7-year-old company that has been quickly expanding across the country. It was unseated from the top spot for 2019.

Italian native, Pasquale Giammarco, founded Marco’s Pizza in 1978 and has been providing his customers with a little slice of Italy ever since. The sauce used on every pie is a recipe by the founder and it’s made fresh in every store using important herbs and spices. They’re an award-winning company and were recently ranked No. 25 on Entrepreneur’s 2018 Franchise 500 list, the No. 3 fastest-growing U.S. chain on the 2017 Nation’s Restaurant News Top 100 report, and named “America’s Favorite Pizza Company” for 2017 by Market Force. They are planning to open their 1,000th store this year. Before you head to Marco’s for a delicious slice, read up on the 27 things your pizza guy won’t tell you.

Next, find out which chain took the crown for best pizza chain of 2022.