After decades of mishap and misfortune, the historic Continental in Sorrento, or “the Conti” as it is affectionately known to locals, has finally been restored as the jewel of the Mornington Peninsula.

During the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s, most locals – including this writer – knew it as the nightclub where you went late at night because there was nowhere else to go. In the 2010s, a series of attempts to redevelop the landmark, including by Melbourne hotelier Julian Gerner, ended in spectacular failure, and it wound up back on the market not long before the pandemic hit.