Bluford Archives: Boss Webster – An Aggie Legend

From 1939 to 1973, there was a fondly remembered cafe on East Market Street across from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s campus. Among the many businesses that populated the area, this place was considered a landmark and a go-to place for generations of Aggies. Beyond the juicy hamburgers and famous fried bologna sandwiches, this place was more meaningful for the man who ran it faithfully with good conversations, friendliness, and a grease-stained apron – that man was “Boss” Webster. Boss was much more than a cook to students of North Carolina A&T and Bennett College. He was an institution. Many students over the years had assumed that there was always a “Boss Webster” because their parents and even grandparents remembered him, and many have said that they would not have made it through school without him.

David Louis “Boss” Webster (1911-1995) of Columbus, KY, first came to N.C. A&T in 1926 as a student of the A&T High School, and later studied masonry in the Smith-Hughes Trade School. His brother Nathaniel C. Webster was the college bursar, the manager of the university’s finances.

In 1930, David Webster left A&T to run a service station in the Washington, D.C. area. When he returned to Greensboro in 1939, he was supposed to run his brother’s hamburger stand for two weeks. However, something in his plans changed when he purchased the business for $1,000 and it remained for more than 30 years. The place was officially named the “Triangle Luncheon” or “Triangle Luncheonette,” but everyone called it “Boss Webster’s.”

Boss was rarely seen on the actual A&T campus. He was too busy preparing the hamburgers and bologna sandwiches that students craved after classes and the games. Yet he was a staple of Aggieland, he referred to his student customers as a family and that he wouldn’t be in business without them. He once told the A&T Register, “A&T students made my business good every day.” He was known for being kind and generous, and he would give discounted or free meals to students who could not afford one.

Webster gave young Aggies more than good food as he was known to talk with anyone who entered his restaurant, giving his homespun wisdom and guidance. He counseled countless students on the importance of a good education and strongly motivated many to stay in school.

In 1973, Boss Webster retired due to his declining health and the luncheon property was purchased by the Washington II Redevelopment Project. A year before his shop closed, he was honored with a plaque by the N.C. A&T Student Government Association. It was one of Boss’s proudest moments.

The honors for David “Boss” Webster would continue. He was honored with a commemorative day in 1981 and another in 2001. Many younger Aggies will remember the neon “Boss Webster’s Place” sign that once blazed in the lower lever restaurants of the newly renovated, Williams Cafeteria for nearly a decade beginning in 2002.

If you have memories or memorabilia (menus, photos, cards) of Boss Webster’s Triangle Luncheonette that you would like share or donate, and if you would like to learn more about A&T History, please contact the F. D. Bluford Library Archives and Special Collections at libraryarchives@ncat.edu.