“All roads lead to the lake.” Or so says Peregrine Social Club’s Lachlan Taylor.

Taylor co-owns Holmes Hall, a beer hall in an old Moonee Ponds supermarket, with David Bartl and Jacob Bettio. Now the trio along with Curby’s partner Charlotte Rose are getting ready to open their new venue – in the middle of a quarry on Valley Lake, Keilor East. Peregrine’s Social Club – or Perry’s, as they’ve nicknamed it – is due to open on February 17.

From the 1940s, basalt mined from the Niddrie quarry was used to pave roads around Melbourne. In 2000, Development Victoria (then the Urban Land Corporation) purchased the site and began work turning it into a residential estate.

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People started moving in around 15 years ago, and there are now approximately 575 houses at Valley Lake. But the former land sales office – a boxy building on the boardwalk with wall-length windows overlooking the lake – sat vacant for years.

“The story goes that when the developers were selling land to people 15 years ago, they always referred to this building they were in, the land sales office, and said, ‘Oh and one day, we’re going to make this a cafe,” Taylor tells Broadsheet.

“People bought into the area thinking they were going to have a cafe there one day, and it was going to be the central meeting place for the community. [But] it never happened.”

Peregrine Social Club – named after the peregrine falcons that nest in the quarry’s cliff faces – is set to rectify the situation.

Taylor and his co-founders have been hands-on in readying the venue. They’ve added a kitchen and a coffee bar, leaving room for around 60 seats indoors and two sizable outdoor areas.

The menu will feature classic cafe fare like eggs Benedict, bacon-and-egg rolls and a peri-peri chicken burger, as well as Holmes Hall’s famous chicken parmigiana and lobster-and-prawn roll.

The team have secured a liquor license, but they’re not planning to make Perry’s a late-night venue. “We wanted it to be a social club for the community,” Taylor says. He’s hoping to add events like parent catch-ups to the schedule in future.

Peregrine Social Club is due to open at 45 Valley Lake Boulevard, Keilor East, on Saturday February 17.

@peregrinesocialclub