If You Were Coming to Hackney East London

Many people do, I could pretty much be your personal holiday guide. This incredibly cool part of one of the world's most vibrant cities has been my home for nearly 18 years. I'm probably one of the original hipsters, who set up my trendy animation business in an empty Hackney warehouse in 2001, when it was all nightly gunshots and lack of infrastructure. It's changed a lot since then and I've watched it happen.

Hackney Central source

Artisan Craft Beers

If it's artisan beers you're interested in and you're a foodie, then I am your host with the most (knowledge.) I know most of the local cafe, bar and restaurant owners & managers, because I'm part of the scenery and I could give you the lowdown on almost anything you need to know about E8 and also about East London in general. It is a big old city and I'm used to getting in and out of it, by road, rail and air. I know all the best routes, the most interesting sites of interest, where to stay, what's good value, what times things get busy and importantly I know what, where and when to avoid.

Après le tournant, tu prends à gauche (Make sure you take the first left)

I could give you the best directions in from any part of the city, with approximate times, potential gridlocks and which routes are the most scenic, cheapest and which ones are running depending on times of day / evening or week. I could give you at least 20 places to eat, from authentic made on the premises from scratch daily, Noodle Soup; Tonkotsu, Mare Street. I recommend the fiery and complex Chili Chicken Ramen, pictured below

Tonkotsu

The Best Breakfast

A Mess Special on Amhurst Road, run by a Turkish family, Mess serves all day breakfast, serves up irresistible fruit smoothies and their chicken Caesar Salad is a summer favourite of mine. It's also very reasonably priced @ £6-£9 with a drink. I could point you to Rosa's Thai food on Mentmore Terrace, which is actually the master kitchen for a small chain of restaurants where they prepare all the base sauces. They do a lunch special every day under £10. If you asked me nicely I would also share a well kept secret & tell you about Buen Ayre, one of London's best Steak restaurants (Argentinian Grill), their menu and the fact that they have 2 sittings, one at 7pm and one at 9pm and that a) you really need to book and b) that their signature fillet steak 10oz will set you back £32 or $44.81 / 36Euros. I can also tell you it's probably one of the best cooked pieces of meat you'll find anywhere in the city.

Buen Ayre

Saturday's Broadway Farmers Market

An international tourist destination for all things food based from organic meats, French cheeses and some of the best street food in London. I could even advise you on which stalls to buy from. Fancy a connoisseur coffee ? I mean the real stuff. Is it a smooth Monmouth or a robust Climpson's you were looking for ? There's actually a real working coffee press over in Dalston (Allpress) with a very nice cafe attached. I pretty much know every inch of the ground around here and coffee is one of Hackney's specialities. Or if you're looking for a lively evening, there's the famous Oslo if you fancy a Nordic twist to your entertainment, with great food and live music.

Viktor Wynd - The Last Tuesday Society source

I can also point you to the Dove pub, which has the longest craft beer menu (I've) ever seen. I quite fancy their strawberry beer on tap. Yes you heard right. They also stock Trappist Monk Brews and some of Belgium's finest high strength beers. Did I tell you about about about Viktor Wynd's Museum of Curiosities yet ? now there's a sight for sore eyes. Sip cocktails with a stuffed Lion and / or take home a lovingly reconstructed fruitbat skeleton. That's the mild side of his wares.

The Dove Pub source

There are a Number of Independent Cinemas

One in a railway arch and a great used furniture store next door. If you fancy something a bit multiplex but with art house films to watch, 2 well stocked bars and a restaurant, live comedy and quizzes, the PictureHouse is great. You'll find my name on the ceiling of the lobby, I was a founder member. Then there's the E5 bakery, making some of London's best known Sourdough bread and their signature loaves the Stockholm and Hackney Wild. It's an endless list and I am your cool cousin.

My name as a founding member of the cinema is on this piece of ceiling art in the lobby Hackney Picturehouse

Street Art

I've also documented the area quite extensively with my camera. I have a huge archive collection of street photo / street art photography by some very well known artists. It's a pretty active area for street art and as the cool cousin I can provide details about where to find such gems, (if they're still actually there as reported.) Or even take you on a guided tour.

The Lord Napier - Abandoned pub in Hackney Wick and one of London's best Large Format Street Art Canvases with global street art stars regularly contributing.. photo by @outerground

Where to Stay ?

..I can give you an estimate of the hotel rates and review of the nearby hotels. Friends of mine from all over the world drop in quite frequently for business and I'm often asked to book rooms for them. So if it's budget you want, there's a new and less than 2 years old travelodge near Hackney Central railway station but if you fancy something cooler, The Ace Hotel with it's ace roof garden on Shoreditch High Street might suit you better. I have meetings there in the coffee bar. It's achingly hip and full of macbook nomads, organising the world's social media accounts while they sup flat whites on the sofa. You kind of get it. I know my area and I share the details about it all the time. I could even tell you the names of most of the shopkeepers and coffee shop owners. Geez, If I said to tell them I sent you, you'd probably make a new friend.

TripAdvisor is so Boring

Like me, you spend a long time deciding where to go to next on your holidays. You like to find the interesting, the most exotic, the historical beauty, the best beaches and you often go on recommendation from people who you trust. Work colleagues, friends and family, like your cool cousin, the one who has been everywhere and always seems to find the best restaurants, the coolest bars, the sandiest beaches and the cheapest luxury hotels. Like me, you also spend a long time on tripadvisor sifting through countless reviews, and just when you think you've found the perfect, town, resort, hotel, restaurant & / or beach, museum and galleries, you read a handful of negative reviews which put you off entirely and you're back to square one. Although you can't be sure, you now can't decide whether the mention of cockroaches, rip off menus, uncomfortable beds, poor quality sand, expensive drinks and (lack of plug sockets, really ?) is an honest review by a fellow traveller or a thinly veiled attempt at putting you off by a competitor. When a business is rated by their real customers, it's more relevant than a paid for ad in a list !

An example of my Hackney Map with some of my favourite places flagged

Cool Cousin

Enter another elegant and very modern use for blockchain. The tokenisation of local knowledge. It's an app based travel agent referral service with local people at the heart of a community designed to put holiday makers and travellers in touch with people on the ground who know where all the good things are. You can find people like you based on your interests. Personal ratings on a restaurant which can't be bought, but you can tip your local guide, who will earn CUZ tokens on the platform for sharing their information, above as I have done here. Users can also earn by sharing photography of an area, provide direction and make amendments to incorrect or (updated) information. That's a pretty cool feature.

Pro Cousin

You'll also be able to contact pro cousins like myself who will be able to take you deeper into an area's culinary and cultural delights. I could even book tables at places you wouldn't necessarily get in. That's real service and it's something I'll definitely be signing up for. And to be honest, I'd be more than happy to share my best experiences with you because why not ? It's definitely aimed at a GenZ / millennial traveler. My Mum and Dad wouldn't have got their heads around how to use it, but for a growing generation of young & clued up nomadic types, this kind of app is just the start of living a decentralised, personalised and more relevant global experience. Cool Cousin has teamed up with the amazing freelancers blockchain app, Canya and I'm also a card carying Canya member Click here to read my prize winning article about them.

A Working Model

Cool Cousin is already a working model and the stats show just how much appetite there is to share information. In the same way that Airbnb has forged a new way of renting holiday accommodation and opened people up to totally new experiences by staying with locals, Cool Cousin can forge the same new bonds without having to rent out a room, just your intimate knowledge of your local area, whether it be downtown Prague, Bondai Beach (not as good as nearby Manly Beach) or Greenwich Village, NYC or the Ancient City of Tulum in the heart of Mayan Mexico. (which I would include in my 100 places to visit before you die.) It's easy to see why people get enthused about Cool Cousin. Who doesn't love sharing their tips about a place, it's the thing friendships are made of. I think many new friendships will be made by Cool Cousin and that's something not many Blockchain projects will be able to say, apart from perhaps, er STEEMIT ?

Roadmap

Cool Cousin's Roadmap is thoroughly planned and well underway. As it's a working project, the timeline ahead is full of rollouts. With 65 cities and over 1000 cousins already signed up 2018 is about taking the project global and cementing their lead in the space. 2019 will see Cool Cousin V4.0 ! maybe it will all be in VR by then ;)

Team

Cool Cousin has a 17-person team consisting of talented professionals from lots of different disciplines, solid industry experience and proven success between them. Spending two years building the Cool Cousin platform and community, the team has an enviable track record of materialising their vision and creating a product people love. They (look happy) and are pumped, ready to take on new challenges. Looks like they're going to be quite busy this summer !

To Find Out More

Cool Cousin Website

Cool Cousin WhitePaper

Cool Cousin Telegram

Cool Cousin Reddit

Cool Cousin BitcoinTalk

Cool Cousin Twitter

Cool Cousin Facebook

Cool Cousin Linkedin

Cool Cousin Medium

Cool Cousin Instagram

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this article is not an endorsement of Cool Cousin. I advise all potential investors to conduct their own research and due diligence and not rely solely on the advice of others. Remember investments can go up as well as down.

cc2018