GQ's Abbot Kinney shopping event takeover on Saturday kind of tasted like the Hipster Lemonade sold in front of The Brig's #GQHQ lot party; a combination of sweet and sour with a heaping scoop of sarcastic humor. 

The day's highlights started with a morning raucous at The Brig with Save Venice event protesters carrying "Hipsters Go Home!" signs, demanding that they be taken out of GQ's national spotlight as the "coolest block in America," an unwelcomed title that they say exacerbates the trend of big money moving in and family-owned businesses moving out with the rising cost of rent. 

Not protesting, however, were 50 new and seasoned Abbot Kinney shops who participated in the event by welcoming the young and stylish foot traffic into their doors by offering discounts, sample sales, gifts with purchase, and in-store events, such as the free shaves at TOMS by Rudy's Barbershop.

We stopped in to ask a few of the shop owners what they thought of the event, and while the day generally proved to be fairly mellow without any record-breaking sales, it's not surprising that, politics and corporate sponsorship aside, many of them prefer a block party that brings people inside their stores versus events hosted outside.