Craig LaBan review: La Calaca Feliz in Fairmount, 3 bells

‘Work for great chefs” is usually the best advice I have for young cooks. The downside, of course, is that the shadow of a truly great mentor can be so long that eventually escaping it can take half a career. Tim Spinner, 33, moving with vibrant salsas, inventive ceviches, and duck-stuffed chiles en nogada in his wake, is now finally basking in his own light. It’s no wonder the skeletons look so joyous in the colorful murals that line the walls at La Calaca Feliz cafe (which means “the Happy Skeleton”), the sunny Nuevo Mex restaurant that he and partner Brian Sirhal opened just over three months ago in Fairmount.