Russo's Clubhouse Pizza, Revisited

It's been some two and a half years since my last visit to Russo's Clubhouse Pizza on Long Pond Road. It's way up by the Parkway and I don't get up that way too often.
But it was past time to go back, so I took advantage of having to run an errand up that way and stopped in for a slice.
This was as fresh a slice as you could get, having literally just come out of the oven. So as is often the case with hot, fresh slices, it was a little sloppy looking, since the cheese hadn't had much time to set.
This slice had a thin to medium crust, which had clearly spent some time on a screen, but unlike a lot of screen-baked crusts, this one was reasonably crisp (it's always seemed odd to me that the ostensible purpose of a pizza screen is to produce a crisp crust, and yet screen-baked crusts are usually anything but crisp). There were a few small spots where the bottom had charred or blackened just a bit. The interior of the crust also showed a nice rise, with an airy texture or "crumb," in breadspeak.
There was a good amount of sauce on this slice. Again, because the slice had just come out of the oven, it may have seemed more "wet" than usual, but it was on the saucy side. The sauce had a cooked-tomato flavor that was more sweet than salty, but not overly sweet.
The cheese seemed to be straight low-moisture, or processed mozzarella (which is not a bad thing - if you're unfamiliar with the different kinds of mozzarella, go here). It was a little gooey, but good. And the slice as a whole was pretty well balanced between the crust, sauce and cheese. And the pepperoni, which was crisp along the edges but not dried out.
I liked this slice. It was pretty similar to the one I had before (which I gave a B-minus), but - maybe because it was so fresh - I do think it deserves to get bumped up one notch. It was well balanced, tasty and reasonably crisp underneath, so I'm giving it a B.
Russo's Clubhouse Pizza, 496 Long Pond Road, Greece, NY 14612
Tel.: 225-3570
Hours (call ahead to confirm): Sun. - Thu. 11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - midnight