NEED MARKETING ADVICE FOR NEW ENGLAND

sounds like a gold mine to me. one suggestion is to offer some other items on your menu besides bbq 'just in case'. this will allow people to get closer to the wonderful world of bbq while eating something else.. like short order items...burgers, grilled and fried foods..
then you tempt them with samples of you q.
just an idea..
if you have picked out a site, i suggest you go the the area and just sit. count the cars that pass by during lunch period. does it peak out with alot of extra traffic? also during 5 pm rush. get alot of cars going home? this will tell you if you are in their path. busy people dont like to travel far for good food. smoke signals are helpful too. had a guy from 6 blocks away say he couldnt stand it any longer, he was smelling the q all day. "one sell, paid for the smell"

I'm not sure how far you are into the planning process, but I have a few thoughts about offering delivery.

I was in the pizza business before BBQ, so I have a pretty fair background into the logistics of delivery.

If you've done all the homework, you may already know this, but just in case:

Delivery is expensive. Insurance costs to cover drivers are very high and labor costs are high. If you promote your delivery service, you will need to keep one driver or more on staff (and on the clock). If you figure that one driver can average about 1 delivery every 20 minutes, the labor alone will cost you at least $2.10 per delivery. Of course, this may dpend on the size of your trading area. On top of the labor, you should figure on paying something for mileage if your drivers use their own vehicles. While much more minimal, there are also costs associated with the equipment needed to serve hot food in a delivery environment. With the costs involved, you really need to do one of two things. One, you can run a large number of deliveries, allowing your drivers to double up and increase the number of deliveries they can make per hour, or two, you can accept fewer delivery orders, and make the tickets higher.

We opt for thae latter route. I usually won't accept any deliveries for less than $100. This serves two functions. First, it makes the trip profitable, second, most people don't place a $100 order the day of. They usually call a day or two in advance. This allows me to make sure I have a staff member available to deliver the order, and I don't have to pull someone off the line and increase the ticket time for my dine in and carry out customers.

I don't mean to discourage you from offering delivery, just want you to consider all the angles. Good luck with your new venture!