Putting @mvonlintel's answer in another way, set the suggestions menu position in the widget declaration:

$('selector').autocomplete(
{
    position: { my: "left bottom", at: "left top", collision: "flip" },
    .
    .
});

You can use the jQuery UI Position utility. Here is an example:

$(".ui-autocomplete").position({
    my: "left bottom",
    at: "left top",
    of: $("#quick_add"),
    collision: "flip flip"
});

Seems as if I've been able to answer my own question already. I'm open to a better solution if someones got it. I added this to the autocomplete start up.. essentially it repositions the box on open to a new offset.

open: function(event, ui) {
    var autocomplete = $(".ui-autocomplete");
    var oldTop = autocomplete.offset().top;
    var newTop = oldTop - autocomplete.height() - $("#quick_add").height() - 10;

    autocomplete.css("top", newTop);
}