Leonador blends lawyering and resto venture

LAOAG CITY, July 20 – For this young lawyer, food is a vital source of energy to survive the rigor of daily work routine. Food also sets one’s mood to a more positive outlook in life.

Promising lawyer Jake Leonador, 26, a 2013 bar passer from Sanchez Mira, Cagayan had grown up to be a good innovator of everything. He set his study guide during his law school. He cooked his food more appetizing and easy to prepare so that his time in reading his law books was not sacrificed.

His love for food developed during his college days when he did the cooking alone, living independently and far from the sheltered life of having a household help.

“I was in college when I have to do things on my own. Part of it was preparing my own food. I looked for something easy to prepare. Whatever I have in my kitchen, I made out of it,” Leonador said.

Today, Leonador owned the very first organic restaurant in Batac City called ‘The Corner’s Place.

“It’s definitely just a corner. This place we are renting which is owned by my uncle is about 100 square meters. At first this served as my satellite office from our law firm at Laoag City but later I turned the vacant space into a resto.” he said.
Leonador has thought that putting up a restaurant arises from his need to have a meeting place for clients but turned-out to be his passion from the start.

“When I started our office in Laoag, my dilemma was where to meet my client since the office is not spacious and all we have in the area are fast food chains which are not conducive for a legal meeting,” he said.

From there, he started to plan the conversion of the place at the corner of his office’s backyard during a ‘San-Mig-Light’ jamming with his friends.

He let his heart dictate what foods to offer in his eatery. He conceptualized comfort foods that can ease his dull moments like the cheese bread rolls as one of Corner’s Place menu items. Luckily a friend’s pal who is a German-based Chef arrived in the city and that was the perfection of everything.

The Corner’s Place’s menu starred the use of Malunggay which is very abundant in every Ilocano’s backyard.

However, like any other investments, his business had a rough sailing. Corner’s Place had to shut down operation due to poor sales that it could no longer sustain operation.

“I have to sacrifice my love for food for a moment but I know the place will come back in due time. I just need to re-think for a better marketing strategy’” said Leonador.

True enough, the Corner’s Place bounced back to a new look after dormant for two months. From an ordinary ‘barkada’ (click) hang-out hub, it now offers a cozier garden set-up.

Moreover, Corner’s place expanded its organic menu with local delicacies like the ‘Batil Patong’ which becomes famous among locals. It’s a noodle with sauce made from chicken stock topped with ground pork and sausage. Batil Patong is a native dish in Cagayan and it was the original recipe of his mother. Included in their menu are the ‘Suman Latik’(Sticky rice cake), Cheese rolls, among others.

To Leonador, his love for food handling continued along with his passion to serve all kind of litigants. In his less than two years as a private law practitioner, he believes that self-fulfillment in serving a client especially a poor litigant is more precious than the money paid for his legal services.

Leonador also conducts free lectures on Violence Against Women and Children Act in the province’s different villages in an effort to educate the barrio folks of their legal rights. (CDG, PIA-1, Ilocos Norte)