Nightclub With Rambo Theme Is Going Great Guns

--At Rambose, waitresses wear fatigues and the food is laid out buffet-style on a green military stretcher. A .50-caliber machine gun, camouflage netting and bunkers made of 50-pound sandbags constitute the decor. “Everybody’s proud of what (President) Reagan’s been doing,” said Carlos Tamborrel Jr., part-owner of the new Houston nightclub. “Everybody’s proud. That’s part of the gimmick.” Rambose, inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s “Rambo” movies, opened three weeks ago. About 1,200 people crowd into the club at night to enjoy the warlike setting and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” the club’s theme song. Manager Larry Dubose said Rambose will thrive “as long as we keep the atmosphere up as being pro-U.S.A. We’re Americans and we’re proud of it.”

--New York Mayor Edward I. Koch, elected to a third term last month, says that pressing the flesh is vastly overrated as a vote-getting technique. It’s better to bellow, “Hi,” the Democratic mayor wrote in “Politics,” the second volume of his political memoirs, because shaking hands “slows you down.”

--Violinist Isaac Stern was named musician of the year by the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts in New York. “I do not take this lightly as another award,” said Stern, 65. “I’ve received many. Some are special. This . . . is very special.”

--Kendall G. Smith had a good time sealing 102 parking meters with Liquid Nails, but he’s not laughing now that he faces up to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Smith, a Valparaiso, Ind., carpenter, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal mischief for sealing the meters in Crown Point with an adhesive-filled caulking gun. “No more practical jokes,” he said. “I guess they are funny until you get caught.” He will be sentenced Jan. 3.

--”Love Boat” crew member Fred Grandy plans to abandon ship to run for Congress in Iowa. Grandy, who has portrayed purser Burl (Gopher) Smith for nine years, said that he will run as a Republican in the 6th Congressional District, where he hopes to oppose the incumbent, Democrat Berkley Bedell. “I’ve decided that a career in show business can be a great living, but not necessarily a great life,” he said. Grandy, 37, grew up in Sioux City, was graduated from Harvard and worked for former Republican Rep. Wiley Mayne, whom Bedell defeated in 1974. “I’d like to use the public recognition I’ve earned in television responsibly, not unlike another well-known actor who has made good in Washington,” he said.