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The original Pals Cabin, from the 1930s.
You want some of the famous cream of mushroom soup or one of the big fat burgers from Pals Cabin, you'd better do it quick.
The West Orange food landmark closes for good today after 81 years in business.
"We've been really busy the past two weeks,'' says Marty Horn, co-owner of the legendary wood-beamed restaurant at the corner of Prospect and Eagle Rock avenues. ''It's bittersweet - we've been seeing a lot of old faces, some we haven't seen in 25 years.''
The Horn family announced back in March that Pals Cabin would close this year, pending approval by the township zoning board. Demolition of the sprawling, chalet-like building will start "sometime this summer, '' according to Horn.
The handwriting had been on the walls for some time; expenses has escalated to unmanageable levels. Utilities were running $20,000 month, property taxes approaching $200,000 a year.
"Our customers say, 'I can't believe you're closing,' '' Horn said. "They don't have to pay my bills.''
Pals was opened by a couple of buddies - Marty Horn and Roy Sale - back in 1932. They sold hot dogs for a dime out of a tiny clapboard-and-tin cabin at what was then a lonely crossroads.
Five years later, Horn and Sale helped launched the career of an 18-year-old piano player from Wisconsin named Wladziu Valentino Liberace.
The flamboyant performer played at Pals for six months, earning $40 a week. The piano Horn bought especially for Liberace is still in the bar, known as the Tap Room.
Babe Ruth was a regular here; the Babe loved to chow down on a couple hot dogs after a round of golf at nearby Crestmont Country Club.
The original cabin was built from doors obtained from the old Proctor's Palace Theatre in downtown Newark.
In 1934, Pals added a 10-stool bar, dining area and kitchen. A small rib eye sandwich that sold for a quarter became an immediate hit. The next year, a larger steak, known as the Pals Special, sold for 50 cents.
In the late 1930s, Duncan Hines - a traveling salesman whose restaurant reviews, published in his "Adventures in Good Eating,'' were required reading from coast to coast - gave a favorable review to Pals Cabin.
Two episodes of "The Sopranos'' were filmed here. In one show, a character says, "I'll bring my ma, the three of us, we'll go have lunch over at Pals Cabin, huh?''
Among the restaurant's more contemporary regulars was former Gov. Brendan Byrne.
"We used to get hot dogs there, and fireworks,'' Byrne recalled. "I have somewhere a gold toothpick Marty Horn gave me 50 years ago. It was a giveaway to his best customers.''
Marty Horn, Horn's grandson, said the former governor has been in "every day'' recently.
"We've had people driving down from Boston, flying in from Florida, coming from all over the East Coast to have a last bite,'' Horn said.
A CVS will be built on the site, but the Pals Cabin name will live on. The family is considering opening Pals Cabin burger joints - on the order of Five Guys or Smashburgers - in North Jersey.
"We'll have exciting news in the next few weeks,'' Horn said.
You can buy Pals' cream of mushroom soup, plus burgers and other sandwiches, at Fairchild's Market in Roseland.
And if you want a piece of Pals' history, an auction of equipment and memorabilia will be held on site at 11 a.m. June 10. Tables, chairs, stoves, ice machines, toasters, mirrors, 50-inch TVs, vintage photos, even the giant wooden fork and spoon above the bar, will be auctioned off.
"Everything must be sold regardless of price,'' according to a message on the A.J. Willner Auctions web site (for more info, visit ajwauctions.com).
Marty Horn said family members will take away their own keepsakes from the restaurant.
How will he feel Saturday night - the restaurant is scheduled to close at 11 - when Pals Cabin is no more?
"It'll be strange,'' Horn replied. "I've been working here since 1987; my dad has worked here all his life.''
Will he personally do anything special Saturday night?
"I'll probably have a drink at the bar,'' Horn said. "And let my wife drive (me) home.''
RELATED COVERAGE:
• Legendary Pals Cabin in West Orange to close pending approval
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