TAXED OUT OF BUSINESS:

 A tiny clapboard-and-tin cabin opened at the lonely corner of Prospect and Eagle Rock avenues in West Orange at the height of the Depression in 1932, selling hot dogs for a dime.

Five years later, co-owners Marty Horn and Roy Sale, who by then had added a dining room called the Pine Room, helped launch 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 him is still in the bar, known as the Tap Room.

Pals Cabin -- a favorite haunt of Babe Ruth, who loved to chow down on its hot dogs after a round of golf at nearby Crestmont Country Club -- would make any short list of Jersey food landmarks.

But it likely won't make it past this year; pending approval at a zoning board meeting tonight, the legendary restaurant will soon be torn down to make way for a CVS. [...]

The bills include $20,000 a month for gas and electric and nearly $200,000 a year in property taxes.

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