A small sign that says ACE is the only indication on Dauphin Street in Mobile that the next driveway will take you to a fifty-year-old company that markets its products all over the Southeast and occasionally to the other side of the world. The manufacturing areas are so noisy, you'd think everybody would know about ACE Fabrication.

If you've every eaten in a school cafeteria, there's a good chance you've used their products.

Robin Stewart, who owns ACE with her husband, Bill, points out, "We probably produce about eighty percent of all the serving lines that go into the State of Alabama School Systems."

ACE Fabrication makes serving lines, sinks, counters, and such for schools, hospitals, restaurants...institutions that prepare and serve food. The products all begin as a sheet of stainless steel.

ACE has a long history...over fifty years at the same location on Dauphin Street in Mobile, but still not well-known here.

Stewart laughs and says, "A lot of people have lived here all their life will say now where are you located? And we're like, right down from Mobile Gas on the opposite side of the street right next to Rayford's...But we actually have a large facility here...we have three manufacturing buildings."

Their employees know the location very well. 

Stewart says proudly, "The average person has been at ACE Fabrication for over twenty-five years." 

There are about thirty skilled workers (craftsmen, really) who take a sheet of stainless steel, cut it, bend it, weld it, smooth away weld marks, and polish it. Plus, as with some unusually shaped sinks headed for the New Orleans Hilton, they customize. Even Robin Stewart's desk was built in this shop!

Clearly there's a lot of pride here. Shop foreman Woodrow Stinson, with ACE for 44 years, says "They're not the best...they're the very best!"

ACE fabrication products can be found as far away as the Sudan...in the American Embassy there. And Disney chose their kitchen and serving units for many of the restaurants at Walt Disney World.

Their phone number is (251) 478-0401, and they are located at 2715 Dauphin Street, Mobile, 36606...just look for the small sign that says, "ACE."