Magill Road has blossomed in recent years, making it next to impossible to drive down without spotting something utterly desirable in one of its abundant shop front windows. With Christmas fast approaching, use this guide to plan and execute expert gift giving and stock up for the summer beyond.

1. Fine & Fettle
59-65 Magill Road, Stepney

Before you do anything on Magill Road, do yourself a favour and dive into a delicious coffee at Fine & Fettle.  Walking into the former retail space, you’re transported a world away from the light industrial atmosphere of the neighbourhood and taken into the chic creation of owner, Sam Worral-Thompson. The menu is more than your usual café fodder too, with Kalbi Beef salad bowls and sweet potato rostis punctuating an eclectic food offering. Sam’s establishment is worth a visit all on its own but the only way to counter-balance a hefty shopping list in one hand is with an excellent coffee in the other.

2. Karmony Health & Fitness
32 Magill Road, Norwood

New Years resolutions remain simply that unless you commit. Bryan Beinke played AFL before launching a small business training average punters in the park. Twelve years later, Bryan’s business Karmony Health & Fitness is a fully-fledged and versatile gymnasium with clients at every level of fitness. While your work slows down for the year and summer’s hospitality rolls out across the calendar, Karmony can offset some of the season’s food and drink consumption this year. Bryan believes health and fitness are about more than losing weight though. He believes the training he and the other coaches at Karmony offer gives people the underpinning required for growth in other areas of their life. “We get a lot of career professionals in here and I like to think this is their training ground to make the other stuff they do in their day job better. It makes them better GPs, better managers and it also gives them a great chance to connect with people from other walks of life.”

3. Aura Objects
99 Magill Road, Stepney

Who says Adelaide can’t have nice things? A beacon shines at the corner of Magill Road and Louis Street – Aura is the neighbourhood’s newest furniture and furnishings store. An elegant gallery of modern design pieces, you could be forgiven for thinking Aura was transplanted here directly from Milan but the business has grown organically in Adelaide over the past 17 years. Directors Simon Zappia and Lesley Williams set up shop on Magill Road a little over six months ago, combining their own design brand Botanica Boutique with a comprehensive list of design brands including Vitra, Norman Copenhagen and Resident. “Offices and homes are coming together as work becomes more flexible,” says Lesley. “People want to be more comfortable and professional at the same time.” Aura is living proof that design can make life, in any mode, more enjoyable.

4 . Wholly Belly
24 Magill Road, Norwood

At the Western end of Magill Road, hugging Kent Town, Wholly Belly is an expansion on a theme started more than a decade ago by Mary and Glenn Smith. Relocating to Magill Road in February, this wood-fired café may have slipped your radar but it’s the first place to visit when you’re finally ready to purchase that modernist home in Tranmere and take a stab at cooking Christmas lunch for the family. You see, not only can you buy a delicious wood oven pizza from Wholly Belly but you can buy a complete wood oven to take away. With an ambience reminiscent of the shops along Abbotts and Kinney Boulevard in Los Angeles, Wholly Belly perfectly marries its industrial bones with a clean interior. There’s no pretension though as the service is prompt and friendly and the food – fired. We came for the pizza but took away a half dozen Montréal-style bagels and a handful of sweet potato chips (the best we’ve ever had). Visiting this place feels like visiting another country – it’s the perfect way to jump-start your Christmas break!

Mary Smith

Continue the Christmas odyssey on Magill Road here and here.