It’s time for the Ogden Marathon- cancel your reservations at the Italian restaurant because Sonora Grill is where you want to come as a pre-race destination or a post-race celebration. Most athletes load up on carbohydrates before a race or competition. You can read more information from Runner’s World on carb-loading here.

As an official sponsor of the marathon, we have created two meals for athletes. Both have a 4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. Our Carb-Load Burrito ($11.95) will help you load up before the race and the Completion Combo ($11.95) will help your body recover. (We also have some incredible desserts to help you celebrate!)

Beans and rice are better than pasta because they offer slightly better carbohydrate properties and are packed full nutrition. Together they form a complete protein, providing all of the essential amino acids. If you’re watching salt intake, they’re a great dish because without the addition of salt during cooking, beans and rice contain no sodium. Beans and rice are an excellent source of iron (45 percent DV) and phosphorus (34 percent DV). They also supply 23 to 27 percent of the recommended daily value of potassium, magnesium, selenium and copper. Rice supplies 87 percent of the total selenium, and beans contribute between 60 to 86 percent of the remaining minerals. The rice and bean combination works so well for long-distance running because rice is a medium on the glycemic index for fast, but not too fast energy and beans are very low on the index, giving you energy longer into your race.

Did you know that Sonora Grill’s rice is vegetarian, vegan, and MSG-free? Most Mexican restaurants use chicken stock to make their rice, and most chicken stocks are heavily laden with toxic MSG. You can watch a cool video about MSG here. In addition to the problems and health risks shown in the video, my favorite statement is that you can make dirty taste good with MSG. Since Sonora Grill doesn’t use any MSG, you can be assured that our good is good . . . and good for you too!

Give your body what it needs and make your reservation now!

Want to participate in the SOLD OUT Ogden Marathon on May 21?

We have an entry for a Relay Team and we are giving it away here TODAY.

Relay Teams may have 2 to 5 participants. Relay participants are allowed to continue running the next leg(s) with their team mate(s), so if you’re dying to run the whole 26.2 miles, you can!

For more information about the Relay Race, click here.

Giveaway Rules:

1. Leave a comment on this blog with the name of the person you vote should win. (Recruit your family and friends to comment and vote for you!)

2. One vote per person. Must be 18 years or older to enter giveaway.

3. The person with the most votes wins the Relay Team Entry and will act as team captain by forming the team.

4. Completed entry forms (one per person) must be turned into the GOAL Foundation (2491 Washington Blvd.) by Monday at 5:00 PM. (The $250 entry fee has been waived. This is a FREE ENTRY!)

5. Bonus: Each person may earn a second vote by adding Sonora Grill’s blog to your blogroll. (Private blogs excluded.) To have your second vote counted, post a second comment on this blog with the link to the blog that has added Sonora Grill to the blogroll AND the name of the person you are voting for.

6. Giveaway ends Friday, February 4 at 10:00 PM MST.

The snow trucks are busy getting piling snow ON the road for Winterfest, and we can’t wait.

You don’t want to miss family-friendly, mostly-FREE, activity packed winter weekend.

Here’s the schedule, with our favorite events in bold:

Friday, January 28

5:45 pm – 6:30 pm  Toboggan Parade (25th Street)

7:00 pm – 10:00 pm  Nordic Events, Rail Riding, Rail Jam (25th Street)

Saturday, January 29

8:00 am – 10:00 am  Firefighters Pancake Breakfast (Amphitheater, $2 per person)

9:00 am – 11:00 am  5K Race (Timbermine to Municipal Gardens, $15)

9:00 am – 4:00 pm  Tubing & Sledding (25th Street, tubes supplied by Recreation Outlet)

9:00 am – 5:30 pm  Snowmobile Races (25th Street)

10:00 am – 1:00 pm  Skijoring (Grant Avenue)

10:00 am – 4:00 pm  Kid’s Snow Play Area (Municipal Gardens)

10:00 am – 5:00 pm  X-Country Skiing and Snowshoeing (sponsored by WSU Campus Recreation)

10:00 am – 5:00 pm  Vendor Mall (Amphitheater)

11:00 am  Polar Bear Swim (Lorin Farr Park)

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm  Dog Costume Contest (Amphitheater)

2:00 pm – 5:00 pm  Human Dog Sled Races (Grant Avenue)

4:30 pm – 8:00 pm  Concert (Amphitheater)

6:00 pm – 6:30 pm  Awards Ceremony (Amphitheater)

To register for these events or to get more information go the Ogden City website.

This is a nice little article from the Deseret News about the Sundance Film Festival in Ogden:

Sundance 2011: The sun shines on Ogden

Bonus: A ticket stub from Tuesday evening’s film, The Music Never Stopped, gets you into the 1960s-themed  opening reception party at the Eccles Conference Center held just after the movie, complete with directors and actors from this year’s films.

Double Bonus: The article recommends eating at Union Grill or Bistro 258. We’d like to provide our own recommendation: Sonora Grill. And to sweeten the deal, we are offering a SUNDANCE SPECIAL:

Come to Sonora Grill before or after your movie and show us your ticket (or stub) for a FREE DESSERT. One free dessert per couple. Offer valid Sunday through Thursday.

Wait List Only, Wait List Only, Wait List Only. That’s what you’ll find if you’re searching for Sundance tickets in Park City or Salt Lake. But not here in Ogden. Tickets for all films showing at Peery’s Egyptian Theatre, an Official Venue of the Sundance Film Festival, are still AVAILABLE.

Tickets will be sold at the Peery’s Box Office Mondays through Saturdays from noon to 5:30 PM through January 29. Tickets are $15. For more information, the box office can be reached at 801-395-3314. For screenings that sell out, wait-list numbers will be distributed to people waiting in line at the box office an hour prior to the screening. Typically, those who get wait-list numbers for Ogden screenings do end up getting into the film. For information on other festival venues and tickets in Park City, Salt Lake City or the Sundance Resort, visit www.sundance.org

The Guard

Friday, January 21, 6:30 PM

Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a salty village cop in Ireland, has a subversive sense of humor, a caustic wit, and an uncanny knack for keeping people at arm’s length. When a straitlaced FBI agent chasing an international drug-smuggling ring hits town, Boyle has no intention of letting the arrival disrupt his routine of hookers and wisecracks. Initially, he relishes offending and ridiculing the agent, but a murder and a series of peculiar events draw the reluctant sergeant into the investigation.
John Michael McDonagh’s crisply written debut feature transcends the rules of the buddy cop comedy, wryly offering genuine humor and thrills against an unexpectedly moving portrait of its protagonist. Brendan Gleeson’s beguiling portrayal of Boyle defies easy definition as hero or buffoon, hinting instead at the lonely, intelligent man behind the sharp retorts. The Guard is a clever, fresh character study, as well as a snappy joyride of an action comedy.

Project Nim

Saturday, January 22, 6:30 PM

From the Oscar-winning team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who, in the 1970s, became the focus of a landmark experiment that aimed to prove an ape—if raised and nurtured like a human child—could learn to communicate using sign language. If successful, the consequences of the project would be profound, breaking down the barrier between man and his closest animal relative and fundamentally redefining what it is to be human. Combining the testimony of all the key participants, newly discovered archival film, and dramatic imagery, Project Nim tells the picturesque story of one chimpanzee’s extraordinary journey through human society and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way.
Filmmaker James Marsh returns to the Sundance Film Festival with an unflinching, unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about Nim’s true nature—and indeed our own—is comic, revealing, and profoundly unsettling.

In a Better World

Saturday, January 22, 9:30 PM

Susanne Bier’s award-winning films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003 and 2005. We are delighted to welcome her back as a World Cinema Dramatic Competition juror and to screen her new film, In a Better World.
Anton lives in two cultures. He works as a doctor at an African refugee camp, where he witnesses the tragedy and brutality inflicted by a warlord, and lives in a small Danish town, where he and his wife, from whom he is separated, raise two sons. Ten-year-old Elias, who is mercilessly bullied, becomes friends with a new classmate, Christian, who defends Elias but also enjoys revenge. Anton’s two worlds collide when he is challenged by his own advocacy of responsibility, compassion, and nonviolence in his encounters with damaged souls.
Bier creates a timely and universal film of extraordinary power and suspense. In an exploration of masculinity and the perpetuation of violence, she imposes difficult moral dilemmas on an idealistic individual, offering no easy answers.

The Ledge

Sunday, January 23, 3:30 PM

Atop a high-rise building, Gavin, a young hotel manager, is about to end his life. Hollis, a detective whose own world has just been turned upside down, is dispatched to the scene. As Hollis tries to persuade Gavin not to jump, each man begins to open up about his past, and we discover that neither of them is convinced that his life is worth living.
In his Sundance Film Festival debut, director/screenwriter Matthew Chapman has crafted an intense thriller filled with soulful inspiration. While the film examines the complex notion of what drives us as people, strong performances and immersive characters keep the audience on the edge of their seats. The Ledge is a nuanced character study of love, faith, and convictions that will leave you with a question . . . How far are you willing to go for what you believe?

Win Win

Sunday, January 23, 6:30 PM

Struggling attorney Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti), who volunteers as a high-school wrestling coach, takes on the guardianship of an elderly client in a desperate attempt to keep his practice afloat. When the client’s teenage grandson runs away from home and shows up on his grandfather’s doorstep, Mike’s life is turned upside down as his win-win proposition turns into something much more complicated than he ever bargained for.
Maybe because director Tom McCarthy is also a skilled actor, he has an innate ability to mine his material for those nuances that expose the delicate human conflicts that drive his characters. They struggle to be good as their almost-understandable flaws put them to the test. You get the distinct feeling that his actors love working for him because they do their jobs so well. Win Win could refer to the old adage about how we play the game, but more simply, it just means that doing right brings out the best in all of us.

My Idiot Brother

Monday, January 24, 6:30 PM

Despite looking for the good in every situation and the best in every person, Ned always seems to find himself holding the short end of the stick—being conned into selling pot to a uniformed cop, being dumped by his girlfriend, and worse yet, losing custody of his beloved dog, Willie Nelson. When he turns to family, he is passed from sister to sister while he gets back on his feet. Ned’s best intentions produce hilariously disastrous results, bringing the family to the cusp of chaos and ultimately the brink of clarity.
Director Jesse Peretz has a keen eye for idiosyncratic human foibles, especially those that make you laugh. My Idiot Brother rolls along with fine-tuned precision by enlisting the talents of Paul Rudd and a talented cast, who can make uncomfortable moments delightful by infusing characters with the perfect balance of humor and pathos. My Idiot Brother reminds us of something we know already: there is no such thing as a normal family.

The Music Never Stopped

Tuesday, January 25, 6:30 PM

Almost 20 years after their teenage son Gabriel (Lou Taylor Pucci) ran away from home, Henry (J.K. Simmons) and Helen Sawyer (Cara Seymour) learn that he has turned up in a hospital. Although benign, a brain tumor has damaged his memory, rendering past and present indistinguishable. Sensing that Gabriel responds to music, Henry seeks out a music therapist (Julia Ormand), who discovers that when Gabriel listens to the rock music he loved—The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Buffalo Springfield—he reengages with the world.
Based on Oliver Sacks’s case study “The Last Hippie,” Jim Kohlberg’s touching first feature explores a family divided by the culture clash of the 1960s. By deftly incorporating flashbacks, the film chronicles the souring relationship between father and son—particularly Henry’s growing distaste for the music he feels is poisoning his son’s mind. The striking irony is that Henry’s only means to reconcile with his son is by embracing the very music that divided them in the first place.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Wednesday, January 26, 6:30 PM

Acclaimed filmmaker and master provocateur Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) returns to the Sundance Film Festival with tongue-in-cheek perfection as he examines the world of product placement, marketing, and advertising by making a film financed entirely by product placement, marketing, and advertising.
We live in an age where it’s tough even to walk down the street without someone trying to sell you something. It’s at the point where practically the entire American experience is brought to us by some corporation. Utilizing cutting-edge tools of comic exploration and total self-exploitation, Spurlock dissects the world of advertising and marketing by using his personal integrity as currency to sell out to the highest bidder. Scathingly funny, subversive, and deceptively smart, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold shines the definitive light on our branded future as Spurlock attempts to create the “Iron Man of documentaries,” the first ever “docbuster”! He may very well have succeeded.

Perfect Sense

Thursday, January 27, 6:30 PM

When Susan (Eva Green), an epidemiologist, reemerges from an affair gone sour, she encounters a peculiar patient—a Glasgow truck driver who experienced a sudden, uncontrollable crying fit. Now he is calm, but he has lost his sense of smell. Susan learns there are 11 cases like him in Glasgow, 7 in Aberdeen, 5 in Dundee, and 18 in Edinburgh. In fact, Great Britain has 100 cases, with additional ones reported in France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, and they all appeared in the last 24 hours.Although Susan’s encounter with Michael (Ewan McGregor), a local restaurant chef, holds the promise of new love, the world is about to change dramatically. People across the globe begin to suffer strange symptoms, affecting the emotions, then the senses.
Director David Mackenzie returns to the Sundance Film Festival (Spreadplayed in 2009) with Perfect Sense, a magnetic romance/thriller that offers a deeply moving proposition about the way the human race might weather a global pandemic.

Like Crazy

Friday, January 28, 6:30 PM

Like Crazy is a film from and about the heart. Jacob, an American, and Anna, who is British, meet at college in Los Angeles and fall madly in love. It’s the purest kind of romance—they’re each other’s first significant attachment. When Anna returns to London, the couple is forced into a long-distance relationship. Their perfect love is tested, and youth, trust, and geography become their biggest enemies.
Taking a complete tonal departure from his last film, Douchebag, which screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, cowriter/director Drake Doremus poetically reveals the intimate details and daily struggles of Jacob and Anna’s love affair as it stretches between time and distance and changes course. Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones are enthralling in their sweetness and honesty as the young couple. An original, contemplative look at first love, Like Crazy strikes a universal chord as it explores the bittersweet beauty and impermanence of relationships.

I Melt with You

Friday, January 28, 9:30 PM

Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Tim (Christian McKay), and Jonathan (Rob Lowe) are friends from college who gather for a weekend each year to celebrate their friendship and catch up with each other. On the surface, they look like other men going through life: they have careers and families and responsibilities. But as with many people, there is more to them than meets the eye. As the weekend progresses, they go down the rabbit hole of excess. Fueled by sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, their bacchanalian reunion drives them to an unexpected place where they are forced to confront themselves and the choices they’ve made.
Writer/director Mark Pellington returns to the Sundance Film Festival with a riveting and emotionally raw story that puts the modern male psyche under the knife, opening it up and exposing it for what it is. The four leads deliver crackling performances as they dig deeply within themselves to portray painfully honest characters. What emerges is a visually dazzling, sonically charged exploration of men on the brink of enlightenment . . . whether they want it or not.

Bobby Fisher Against the World

Saturday, January 29, 3:30 PM

Considered by many to be the world’s greatest chess player, Bobby Fischer personified the link between genius and madness. His trajectory propelled him from child prodigy to world chess champion at age 29 and then into a nosedive of delusions and paranoia. Fischer was a recluse for decades before resurfacing for a bizarre final chapter as a fugitive.
As a loner with no familial support, Fischer had to defend his title while representing his country against the mighty Russians during the cold war. The center of media attention, Fischer was never equipped for a life in the spotlight.
From veteran filmmaker Liz Garbus, and the final project of late editor Karen Schmeer, Bobby Fischer Against the World exposes the disturbingly high price Fischer paid to achieve his legendary success and the resulting toll it took on his psyche. Rare archival footage and insightful interviews with those closest to him expand this captivating story of a mastermind’s tumultuous rise—and fall.

Margin Call

Saturday, January 29, 6:30 PM

Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, Margin Call is a thriller entangling the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When entry-level analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. Expanding the parameters of genre, Margin Call is a riveting examination of the human components of a subject too often relegated to partisan issues of black and white.
Propelled by a stellar cast that includes Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, and Demi Moore, writer/director J. C. Chandor’s enthralling first feature is a stark and bravely authentic portrayal of the financial industry and its denizens as they confront the decisions that shape our global future.

Life In a Day

Saturday, January 29, 9:30 PM

In May 2010, Sundance Institute was invited to participate in a global cinematic experiment. Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald was planning to direct a feature-length documentary shot in a single day, July 24. Fueled by the power and innovation of YouTube, the project enlisted a global community to capture a moment of their lives on camera. We worked together to spread the word, and the world responded with more than 80,000 submissions; over 5,000 hours of deeply personal, powerful film clips were uploaded from contributors from Australia to Zambia, from the heart of the bustling cities to the furthest and most remote reaches of Earth.
Life in a Day is a compilation of the most compelling images honed by Macdonald, executive producer Ridley Scott and his team, and a crew of talented editors from the vast footage submitted. Their task was to create a unique cinematic experience: in beautiful and harrowing honesty, what it is to be alive on Earth today.

2 for 1 Salads!?! Are you serious?

Check the facebook page for more information.

The 12 Days of Christmas, Sonora Grill style is coming, and you don’t want to miss it. Because we don’t have calling birds, milking maids, or pipers piping here. But we do have delicious salads, desserts, tableside guacamole, and fajitas. And you won’t believe the deals we’re going to offer on them! Be sure to check our facebook page to find out about the incredible specials.