It wasn’t all that long ago that Mary Catanese was managing sales accounts of $15 million annually and jetting across the country.

Then the recession hit; she lost her job and she discovered her passion.

Now she is working 13 to 15 hours a day in addition to going to school on Sundays. She loves it. She loves driving only five miles to work. She loves running her own business and seeing her plans come together and, best of all, she gets to bake.

Catanese bought the former Pauldon’s Restaurant building on Music Lane in Apponaug, sunk a lot of money into revamping it and about three weeks ago opened the Music Lane Café.

So far it’s been a family effort. Her son, Matt Manco, waits tables and is behind the counter and “my husband runs errands,” she says. She credits her chef and her marketing forays to neighboring businesses and Route 2 with bringing in the business and getting them to return regularly. She said the restaurant sees from 30 to 50 customers daily.

In fact, some customers like Richard and Anna Crute are there for lunch every day.

That’s an unexpected bonus, says Catanese.

“I get to meet some really nice people,” she said.

As for the Crutes, they said Tuesday they enjoy the food. A favorite is the Panino, a sandwich served on a rustic Italian roll will a combination of all natural ingredients including prosciutto and provolone. When it’s the daily special, the sandwich sells for $5.95 and includes the choice of a fresh salad or fruit cup.

Catanese has made a concerted effort not to only use fresh ingredients but also foods from Rhode Island or New England companies. For example you won’t find Coke in the soda case at the café, but rather Yacht Club soda.

It’s Catanese’s passion for pastry that has energized her career change. She had worked for Revlon and then Helen of Troy in sales, traveling across the country before she was laid off.

Assessing her situation she decided to turn to baking. She enrolled at Johnson & Wales where she still takes weekend classes. One of her classes required her to critique the pastry of three bakeries and Catanese decided to do her research in Boston. She found some excellent goodies as well as some that weren’t all that good.

She knew she wanted to bake only the best. Moreover she knew she wanted her own business and she wanted to be here.

“After 20 years (of being on the road) I wanted to stay home,” she said.

She met up with Lauren Slocum, president and CEO of the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and started a search of available sites before settling on the building in Apponaug. The café is alongside Walgreens and somewhat off the beaten track.

Nonetheless, Catanese figured she had what she needed.

“I know the nuts and bolts of managing people,” she said.

She also had marketing experience, albeit on a much bigger scale than a café in Apponaug. She did a lot of research. One of her first moves was to get an “excellent chef.” Next she looked at pricing so as to be competitive in the market and then began to get out the word. She distributed flyers to Route 2 businesses and throughout the village.

The effects of the economy seemed daunting, yet she reasoned, “people still go out to eat and people don’t want to cook.”

She also reasons that some people are working so much that they don’t have the time to cook and “are always looking for someplace good.”

“They’re looking for alternatives to fast food,” she said.

If they are looking for diet foods, however, they best look elsewhere when it comes to Catanese’s baking.

As she sees it, pastry “should be very rich, it should be good and that means it’s full of calories.”

For those customers who inquire about calories, Catanese says, “I tell them to be careful.” Some customers will take only a couple of bites from her cake, which is sure to be full of butter and cream, and ration themselves a few bites a day until it’s gone.

Catanese laughs. It’s one of those rewards of the job she couldn’t have imagined in her former job.