Lexus Monogram GX: A Luxury Culinary Experience on Wheels
Should you find yourself at the center of a Venn diagram including pizza enthusiasm, a lush appreciation of cocktails, and an inkling for new Lexus GX luxury SUV, we suggest maybe sitting down. For the annual Food & Wine Classic taking place in Aspen, Colorado, Lexus teamed up with GE’s Monogram luxury appliance arm to build this, the Lexus Monogram GX, which is more than just a GX550 SUV with a beverage cooler between the rear seats—though it has one of those, of course.
Transforming Luxury with High-End Appliances
Monogram is General Electric’s upscale appliance brand, which makes it an ideal partner if your goal is to transform a luxury SUV like the new GX into a sort of mobile dinner party, or a “bespoke culinary experience on wheels.” There is more than $10,000 in the appliance maker’s wares onboard, from the rear-facing 30-inch Smart Flush Hearth Oven in the cargo area ($9,000) to the Monogram Forge Heated Ice Press ($1,500 to start) mounted between the rear seats. The electric oven is “handcrafted to capture the performance of a wood-fired brick oven to prepare pizza, soft artisanal bread, or fresh-caught roasted branzino.” It also looks slick as all get-out.
Unmatched Ice Experience
The ice press is, apparently, “the first and only heated ice press” offered in America, and can churn out a perfectly spherical ball of ice (from a more cube-shaped brick frozen in a special tray) in 60 seconds. Monogram notes that the device can “entertain endlessly thanks to no recovery time between continuous, back-to-back presses.” The special tray for making the pre-spherical ice chunks only has four molds, however, so we suggest purchasing extra if your plan is to start mass-producing ice balls.
Customized Luxury Features
Lexus clearly went ham sandwich customizing the GX for all of this, working with Complete Customs to swap out the SUV’s liftgate for a unique clamshell set of rear barn doors, each of which has cutouts for bar utensils (on the left door) and pizza oven accessories (such as a large pizza peel on the right-hand door). The rear quarter windows have also been swapped out for solid panels that lift up to reveal further drink and glassware storage. The various compartments are finely trimmed with quilted leather and carpeting, and there is even a Dekton slate stone countertop-style “plating station” on the cargo floor beneath the pizza oven. Oh, and in case you need extra cold storage, there is a cold console compartment in the back, too.
Luxurious Interior and Versatile Design
The rest of the GX is decked out in Monogram’s stainless-steel, black, and brass color scheme, with gold badges, gold accents throughout the interior, and gold-tipped roof rack crossbars that resemble the handles of Monogram’s appliances. There is camel-colored leather everywhere, along with a special center rear console with stone trays elevating the GX’s rugged interior. For a one-off pizza oven on wheels, it’s surprisingly classy; given how adventurous the new-generation GX is, the Monogram could offer a compelling starting point for hardcore picnickers, if not exactly off-grid overlanders.
