Mama Lena's Italian Kitchen (on Chicago Ave.) and later...

I obtained the book "A Touch of This And A Touch Of That" by Lena Madonna's son & daughter in law.
Knowing that it was primarily a cookbook, I was still quite disappointed in the charmed thumbnail history of the operation.
I was only there once as a child; a year or so after they opened up in that hole-in-the-wall, and just remember it as more of a Chicago landmark than for its cuisine. Even as a kid I knew merely passable.
My Dad, an orthopedic surgeon, was called into the kitchen when one of the help fell ill. Later when he came out he mentioned to my mom that the kitchen was so filthy she was lucky she hadn't seen it.
But I digress.
I remember as late as 1980-81 ads in the North Town News (or something) referring to "The Italian Door" in a brownstone on Chicago (NOT the orig. ML's location) where the same food was being featured.
Question: did the ITALIAN DOOR last very long? Did it deviate much or at all from the showbizziness of Mama Lena's? How was the food? When did it close?

If I recall correctly (It was a LONG time ago, early 70s, I believe) and I'm thinking about the right place, Mama Lena's served family-style meals, on long tables for larger groups, with several smaller tables scattered around. I believe everybody would be served the same antipasti, and primi (with second helpings), altho there might have been choices for second courses. Reservations were required and they were often difficult to get. Altho I remember no particular dishes, I believe it was typical Southern-Italian-American style cuisine, similar to Tufano's or Febo's or (and here's another memory) Club El Bianco.

When the Italian Door opened, we reserved a table to introduce some friends to this kind of experience, since it was advertised as "Family-style" similar to Mama Lena's. I remember absolutely nothing of the food other than the fact that my impressions were totally negative from zuppa to noci, and this was long before I had any real experience with la cucina italiana vera. What I do remember was that two young men were running (if you can call it that) the place, and they didn't have a clue on how to manage a restaurant or to structure and cook a meal. A lot of good intentions, but execution was nil. Much apologies to our friends afterwards, and regrets (in retrospect) that we didn't have something like LTH to check up on things like this. I don't think the responsible parties ever got their act together because, I believe, the Italian Door was locked and shuttered shortly thereafter.