First Friday. 11:30 p.m. Most people are tumbling in and out of Fountain Square bars after a long night of artistic stimulation. Alex George is alone, wrapping briskets in brown paper under the dim light of a few bulbs. They hang above his smoker at the Old Gold Barbecue food truck behind Metazoa Brewing in Fletcher Place.

“You’ve caught me at a busy time,” he says, barely looking up from his swaddled lovelies. Brisket is fussy. The tough cut requires low, slow cooking. Blanketing the beef part-way through the smoking process ensures juicy tenderness hours later. Timing is critical. “I have to stay focused on this,” George says.

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His day began eight hours earlier, and George, who came to Indy from Austin, Texas, where barbecue is pretty much a way of life, will remain by the smoker until well past 11 a.m. the following day. Old Gold serves barbecue fresh off the cooker Wednesday-Sunday until the meat’s all gone. By the time someone tucks into the first brisket sandwich out the order-up window, George is prepping for his next night of cooking.

When he’s not tending the fire or smoking meats, George splits and stacks the cherry, Indiana white oak and Texas post oak logs he uses to achieve a masterful smoke balance on brisket, ribs, pulled pork and turkey breast.

George is the kind of obsessive, out-of-state cook you hope Indianapolis attracts as the metro area expands beyond the handful of chefs who have dominated the city’s top restaurants for the past decade.

He’s part of Austin-based Keller Restaurant Group, fronted by Lafayette native and former N.Y. Jets tight end Dustin Keller. The company plans three to five distinctive, one-off Indy restaurant concepts different from anything else here.

“Wait ’til they have one of my half-pound burgers stuffed with brisket, Monterey Jack and serrano,” George says of specials he plans as Old Gold moves closer to occupying brick-and-mortar digs this year.

From there, the group intends a casual French-Vietnamese restaurant, possibly in Fountain Square, that might incorporate George’s smoked brisket into pho or feature his green curry sausage among spring rolls and banh mí sandwiches.

“We decided on Indy because this feels very much like the beginning of a cool food scene. I thought, why not add something else to it,” Keller partner Will Hong says.

Hong is a Southern Californian who grew up in his parents’ diner business and ran Wolfgang Puck restaurants in Vegas. He was managing Austin restaurant Elizabeth Street Café by the city’s top-notch McGuire Moorman Hospitality when he met Keller.

Keller, an Austin resident and Elizabeth Street regular, is a food enthusiast who has written restaurant reviews for the New York Times NFL blog Fifth Down. He also owns stake in McAlister's Deli and Dunkin’ Donuts franchises. Ready to do something more creative back home in Indy’s blossoming food scene, Keller found the right cohort in Hong.

“Every single time I would come into Elizabeth Street Café, he just made me feel, like, so at home,” Keller says. “It just gave me that feel-good for the whole rest of the day. Whatever I had ahead of me, I got my moment of peace, my moment away, my perfect sanctuary, and that all started with Will.”

Not just Hong but also his Elizabeth Street co-worker, Brittany Kobayashi, genuinely cared about customers, taking interest in their families, even photos of their kids, Keller recalls.

“And they didn’t have truly a vested interest in that restaurant. That’s just who they were,” Keller says. “My wife and I knew at some point, if we had the opportunity to create something with these guys, we would love to do that.”

Keller pitched Indianapolis to Hong, who was ready to move on from what he and Kobayashi say has become the expensive and restaurant-saturated Austin area. Hong suggested they start with an authentic, Texas-style barbecue restaurant in Indianapolis.

“It’s kind of a meat-and-potatoes town, and barbecue is the best meat and potatoes,” Hong says.

Hong and Kobayashi, originally from Las Vegas, had become friends, and Kobayashi’s boyfriend, George, originally from Savannah, Ga., just happened to be a seasoned barbecue guy who worked under respected pitmasters Braun Hughes of Austin’s famous Franklin Barbecue and Bill Dumas of the city’s highly rated Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew.

George proved himself to a doubtful Keller by smoking meats for the ex-football-player and a bunch of his Texas-barbecue-aficionado friends. “He (George) was up for 15, 16 hours straight by himself cooking all this, and the next day…everybody was just blown away,” Keller says.

Keller invited Kobayashi and George into Keller Restaurant Group, and the couple along with Hong set off to Indiana. “We went for it,” Keller says.

As of late May, Hong, Kobayashi and George had a promising lead on a permanent Old Gold location. The business is named after Keller’s Purdue alma mater colors. The restaurant will be casual, counter service, with smoked meats cut to order and served on brown-paper-lined sheet pans.

Expect signature Old Gold sides like smoked street corn, housemade smoked pickles and green chile macaroni and cheese that the business partners serve themselves from the food truck. They share shifts between other duties.

Kobayashi, who holds a degree in fine art photography, handles marketing. Hong is the numbers and inventory guy. George is all culinary, pushing out specials to keep setting Old Gold apart. Lately it’s been cherry-smoked beef jerky and nachos smothered in chopped brisket and spicy queso.

“It’s not about being a master,” George says. “It’s the struggle of trying to get there.”

Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, and on Facebook. Call her at 317-444-6264.