Getting around Fable's family dining

Last year our dining group wanted to try Fable Kitchen and it turned out that for larger tables, they enforce a group menu with "served family style" elements.
It's still the same. I had totally forgotten about it, and when I tried to expand our reservation from 6 to 8, I got "the e-mail":

Parties of over 6 guests usually dine on our four course group menu (attached) so our small kitchen can run smoothly. It is $45/person plus tax & 18% gratuity. This is a great menu for parties, as it decreases time looking over menu options and makes for more time to socialize! The menu is personal salad to start, family style appetizers from our popular choices, choice from four of our most popular entrees, and dessert served family style. This is a great menu to sample through all of our most popular items. Menu items do change as seasonal product does, and I know that Chef may well make changes, but the 'bones' of it will remain the same. We have served this menu a number of times now, to rave reviews. We have no problem accommodating any special requests or dietary restrictions for any of your guests, please let us know of any of these in advance.

We take a $10 per person deposit to hold the seats. If all guests reserved for arrive the night of, or we receive at least 48 hours notice of a change in the numbers, the full deposit will be applied to your bill the night of your reservation. (Or refunded to you the night of if that is preferred.) Please don't be afraid to forward any questions or special requests!

If [friend's name]'s party would prefer to dine off of our regular menu, we could have you in earlier at 6:00 but the entrée and appetizer order must be placed at the same time.

I look forward to hearing back from you!

Notable extra information this time include:

$10 per person deposit. You get it back if ALL reserved guests show. So no-shows will cost you $10 a butt (since they're obviously a-holes to no-show on you).
No more family style 3-course $50 per person platter option (or at least not offered up front).

More importantly, there is a workaround -- seating by 6pm AND ordering entrée and appetizer at the same time.

I replied to the e-mail saying that our dining group typically likes to share our food anyway and wouldn't mind orders not hitting the table all at once, but did not get a reply by the time of this blog posting.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting the same information on Yelp, this comment was added by Fable to my Yelp post:

10/25/2015 Thanks for helping to provide this information for larger groups! Response to large group requests depend on the date & time requested, the number of people and what the room looks like on that particular night. Besides some basic necessities for groups that keep the kitchen running smoothly, we are not a corporate entity so have the flexibility to look at each request singularly and respond to the situation. The family style group menu remains available, even for groups as small as four, but again depends entirely on the request details vs what is happening in Fable at the time. This is a good general guideline, but I always recommend contacting us to communicate the details and get an accurate picture of what we can do for the group.

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Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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