The polvaria works because the woman behind the bar is the owner.

This is important. Not in a sentimental way, not in a “support small business” way, but in the structural way that determines whether the polvo is good or not. She decides the menu. She knows the regulars. She pours the ribeiro the way it should be poured, which is to say generously, into ceramic cups that don’t match, without asking if you’d prefer something else. There is nothing else. This is the polvaria.